You want to turn a paper handout from a meeting into editable text, copy the details from a business card into your contacts, or write up notes from a photo of a whiteboard. Typing it all out by hand is slow and error-prone.
This guide shows you how to copy text from images, photos and PDFs with the free Copy Text From Image tool. Recognition runs in your browser, so your files are never uploaded.
I often needed to retype text from photos of paper documents, or from image-only PDFs with no selectable text — sometimes many pages at once. Being able to do that automatically was a real time-saver for me.
What is OCR?
OCR (optical character recognition) is technology that finds letters in an image and turns them into real text you can copy, search and edit. To your computer, a photo of a page is just colored dots; OCR is what turns those dots back into words.
This tool uses Tesseract, a widely used open-source OCR engine, running directly in your browser. It works best on printed or typed text — receipts, documents, slides and screenshots.
What this tool does
- Extracts text from images (JPEG, PNG and more) and PDFs
- Recognizes English, Japanese, or both together
- Processes several files at once
- Copies the result to your clipboard or saves it as a text file
- Works entirely in your browser — your files are never uploaded
How to use it
Step 1. Choose your files
Open Copy Text From Image and choose the images, photos or PDFs you want to read. You can select several at once.
Step 2. Choose the language and extract
Pick the language of the text — English, Japanese, or English + Japanese for documents that mix both — and click Extract text. The first time, the recognition engine and language data take a moment to download.
Step 3. Review the result
The recognized text appears in the box below. OCR is good but not perfect, so check numbers, names and symbols against the original. Lines, logos and smudges can also turn into stray characters you’ll want to delete.
Always check numbers against the original
Step 4. Copy or save
Click Copy result to paste the text elsewhere, or Save as text file to download it. When you process several files, each one’s text is labeled with its file name.
On a receipt, prices are the easiest thing to get wrong — a missing decimal point turns $3.25 into $325. Always compare amounts with the original before you use them.
Tips for better results
- Shoot straight on: tilted or curved pages are harder to read. Hold your phone parallel to the paper
- Use good, even light: shadows and glare across the text cause mistakes
- Crop to the text: cutting away backgrounds and borders with the Image Cropper reduces stray characters
- Choose the right language: picking only the language actually in the document is usually more accurate than a mix
When this comes in handy
- Meeting handouts: turn paper documents into text you can save and edit
- Business cards: copy names, emails and phone numbers into your contact list
- Whiteboards and notices: photograph them and keep the text as notes
- Multi-page PDFs: convert a whole scanned PDF to text in one go
- Screenshots: grab text from images of messages, error dialogs or slides to quote or edit
- Receipts: copy store names, dates and amounts for expense reports
Many devices now have OCR built in — Live Text on iPhone and Mac, Google Lens on Android, and Text actions in the Snipping Tool on Windows 11. But on older devices, or on work computers where features are restricted, they aren’t always available. That’s where this tool comes in: a safe option that works in any modern browser.
My favorite part is converting multi-page PDFs to text in one go. OCR has its limits, but combined with other tools for cleanup, such as the Line Break & Whitespace Remover, the results are quite usable.
FAQ
Can’t my phone already do this?
Often, yes. Live Text and Google Lens are handy for copying a line or two from a photo. This tool is useful when you’re on a computer without built-in OCR, when you want to process several files or multi-page PDFs at once, or when you want everything saved as one text file.
Can I use the text without checking it?
We don’t recommend it. Common errors include look-alike characters (0 and O, 1 and l, rn and m), dropped or extra spaces, missing decimal points, and punctuation such as brackets or bullets read as other symbols. Always review the result before you use it.
Why does the result contain mistakes?
OCR guesses each character from its shape. Blurry photos, unusual fonts, tight spacing and background patterns all make that guess harder. Similar-looking characters, such as 0 and O or 1 and l, are common mix-ups.
What does “Remove extra spaces between Japanese characters” do?
Japanese OCR often inserts spaces between characters that shouldn’t be there. This option removes them. It only affects Japanese text, so you can leave it on when reading English.
Things to watch out for
- Always review the result: especially numbers, prices, dates and names
- The first use downloads data: the recognition engine and language data are several megabytes, so use Wi-Fi on a phone
- Handwriting isn’t reliable: this tool is designed for printed text
- Be careful with personal information: receipts and forms may include card numbers or addresses. Handle the extracted text with the same care as the original
Summary
With Copy Text From Image, you can turn text in photos, screenshots and PDFs into text you can copy — for free, without uploading anything.
Try it with a receipt or a screenshot you have on hand.
