Image to Text (OCR)

Extract editable text from a photo or scanned document, quickly and securely.

  • Works best on clear, well-lit, high-contrast text

Honest heads-up: OCR accuracy depends heavily on image quality — sharp scans do great, blurry photos or unusual fonts will have more errors. Always proofread the result.

Select an image to scan

or drop it here.

How to extract text from an image

  1. Add a photo, screenshot or scan that contains text.
  2. Wait a moment while the text-recognition engine loads and reads the image. The first run takes a little longer because the engine has to download.
  3. Review the result. Edit anything that was misread, then copy the text or download it as a .txt file.

What affects accuracy

OCR (optical character recognition) works by finding lines of text and matching the shapes of letters. The cleaner the shapes, the better the result:

  • Resolution. Text should be at least about 20 pixels tall. A sharp 300 dpi scan beats a small, blurry photo.
  • Contrast. Dark text on a plain light background is ideal. Coloured backgrounds, watermarks and patterns cause mistakes.
  • Straightness. Photograph the page from directly above; tilted or curved text is harder to read.
  • Lighting. Avoid glare and heavy shadows across the text.
  • Fonts. Plain printed fonts work best. Decorative scripts and handwriting are poorly recognised by this engine.

Always proofread. Even good OCR confuses look-alikes (0 and O, 1 and l, rn and m). Check names, numbers and amounts carefully before you use the text.

Languages

This free tool runs in your browser and reads English. For documents in Hindi and other languages, use the AI option on OCR PDF, which reads 90+ languages. To use it with a photo, first turn the photo into a PDF with Image to PDF.

Clean up with AI

After the text appears, an optional Clean up with AI button (2 credits, free account needed) fixes common recognition mistakes, stray line breaks and spacing, without rewriting your words. An Undo button restores the original text.

Is it private?

The text recognition itself runs entirely in your browser; your image isn't uploaded. Only if you choose Clean up with AI is the recognised text (not the image) sent to an AI model, as described in our Privacy Policy.

Frequently asked questions

Can it read handwriting?

Not reliably. This engine is built for printed text. Neat block capitals sometimes work; cursive rarely does.

Why is the output full of strange characters?

Usually the image is too small, too blurry or too low in contrast, or the text isn't English. Try a sharper, larger image, or crop to just the text area.

Can I get a searchable PDF instead of plain text?

Yes — OCR PDF keeps the original page look and adds an invisible text layer so you can search and select the text.

Related tools

  • OCR PDF — make scanned PDFs searchable; AI option for Hindi and 90+ languages
  • Scan to PDF — capture documents with your camera
  • Alt Text Generator — describe images instead of reading text from them