Image to Text uses OCR (optical character recognition) to read the words in a picture and turn them into editable text. Use it to grab text from screenshots, photographed notes, scanned letters, book pages, receipts, posters and slides, so you don't have to type it all again.
The OCR engine is Tesseract, an open-source engine originally developed at HP and later maintained by Google, compiled to WebAssembly so it runs right inside your browser. Your images are never uploaded, so private documents stay private.
How to use the Image to Text (OCR) tool
- Select or drop an image containing text.
- Wait a few seconds while the text is recognised. A progress bar shows the status.
- Review and correct the text in the box.
- Copy it to your clipboard or download it as a .txt file.
Features
- Accurate English OCR powered by Tesseract.
- Works with photos, scans and screenshots.
- A confidence score for each result.
- Copy or download the recognised text.
- Private, browser-based processing with no upload.
Tips for best results
For the best accuracy, use a sharp, well-lit image with the text straight and horizontal. Crop away everything except the text (Crop Image helps), and rotate sideways photos first. Screenshots of on-screen text give near-perfect results, while handwriting is much harder for any OCR engine. For multi-page scanned PDFs, convert the pages to images with PDF to JPG first.
Compatibility and limits
The Image to Text (OCR) tool works in all modern browsers, including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari and Samsung Internet, on computers, tablets and phones. Images are processed at their full original resolution. Very large photos (above about 50 megapixels) may exceed the memory limits of some mobile browsers, so if a phone struggles, try a computer or resize the image first. Your original file is never modified, because the result is saved as a new file.
Privacy: your files never leave your device
Your images are processed locally in your browser using the HTML5 canvas and WebAssembly. Photos are never uploaded, so personal pictures, ID documents and client work stay on your device. There is no account, and no copies are kept on any server.
Frequently asked questions
Is this OCR tool free?
Yes. It is completely free and unlimited, because recognition runs on your own device.
Which languages are supported?
This version recognises English, including numbers and common punctuation.
Can it read handwriting?
Neat handwritten print sometimes works, but OCR is designed for printed text, so results with handwriting vary a lot.
Are my images uploaded to a server?
No. The OCR engine runs in your browser, and images never leave your device.
How can I improve accuracy?
Use a high-resolution, well-lit, straight image, and crop to just the text area.