Image to Text Converter (OCR)
Extract text from any image, photo, or screenshot instantly in your browser. No upload, 100+ languages supported.
Drop your image here
or click to browse your files
Supports JPG, PNG (Max 10MB recommended)
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) reads the shapes of letters and words in an image and converts them into actual, selectable, editable text — turning a photo of a page, a screenshot of a chat, or a scanned document into text you can copy, search, or edit directly.
This tool runs OCR entirely inside your browser using a WebAssembly build of the open-source Tesseract engine — the same underlying technology used by many commercial OCR products. Your image is never uploaded to a server; the recognition happens locally on your device, and only a one-time language data file is downloaded to enable that language's recognition.
Over 100 languages are supported, and results are generally strongest on clear, well-lit, reasonably high-resolution images with standard printed or typed text. Handwriting, very low-resolution photos, or heavily stylized fonts will produce less reliable results, which is a limitation of OCR technology generally, not specific to this tool.
Step-by-step instructions
- 1
Upload an image
Drag and drop or select a photo, screenshot, or scanned image containing text.
- 2
Choose the text's language
Select the language that matches the text in your image for the most accurate recognition.
- 3
Click Extract Text
The tool downloads the language model (first time only) and processes the image, showing a progress bar.
- 4
Copy or download the result
Copy the extracted text to your clipboard, or download it as a .txt file.
Common use cases
Digitizing a printed document
Turn a photo of a printed page into editable, searchable text without retyping it.
Extracting text from a screenshot
Pull text out of a chat screenshot, a slide, or a web page image instead of retyping it by hand.
Copying text from an image someone sent you
Get text out of a photo that was shared as an image rather than as plain text.
Making old scanned notes searchable
Convert a scanned page of notes into text you can search through or paste elsewhere.
Tips for best results
- Choose the correct language before extracting — running English OCR on non-English text (or vice versa) significantly reduces accuracy.
- Crop the image to just the text area beforehand if possible — extra background clutter around the text can reduce accuracy.
- Higher-resolution, well-lit images produce noticeably better results than blurry or low-light photos.
- OCR works best on printed or typed text — handwritten text is recognized far less reliably by any OCR engine, including this one.
Frequently asked questions
Is my image uploaded to a server?
No — the OCR recognition runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly. Only a one-time language data file is downloaded; your image itself is never sent anywhere.
Why is the extracted text inaccurate for my image?
OCR accuracy depends heavily on image quality — blurry, low-resolution, poorly lit, or handwritten text all reduce accuracy. Try a clearer, higher-resolution image, and confirm you selected the correct language.
Can this read handwriting?
It can sometimes recognize very neat handwriting, but OCR generally performs much better on printed or typed text than on handwriting, which is a limitation of the underlying technology rather than this specific tool.
Which languages are supported?
Over 100 languages are supported. Select the matching language from the dropdown before extracting for the most accurate results.
How long does extraction take?
It depends on image size and your device's processing speed — typically a few seconds for a single page of text, plus a one-time language data download the first time you use a given language.
Can I extract text from a PDF?
This tool accepts image files directly. For a PDF, first convert a page to an image using the PDF to Image tool, then run that image through this tool.