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SPCXTools

Image to Text (OCR)

Copy the text out of any photo, screenshot or scan — recognized in your browser, in 16 languages.

Runs locally — files never leave your device

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How to use Image to Text (OCR)

  1. 1Choose the language of the text in the image.
  2. 2Choose an image, drop it onto the page or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V (⌘+V on Mac).
  3. 3Click Extract text. The first time, the recognition engine and language model are downloaded.
  4. 4Correct any mistakes in the text box, then copy or download the text.

Turn pictures of text into editable text

Retyping text from a photo is slow and error-prone. Whether it's a screenshot of a message, a photo of a whiteboard, a scanned letter, a receipt, a page from a book, a slide from a presentation or a sign in another language you want to translate, this OCR tool recognizes the text and gives it to you as plain text you can copy, edit and search.

Features

  • 16 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi.
  • Mixed-language pages with an extra English layer.
  • Paste screenshots directly from the clipboard.
  • Editable result with copy and download as .txt.
  • Private: the image is processed on your device.

Tips for the best recognition

Image Expected result
Screenshot of a document or website Excellent
Flatbed scan at 300 DPI Excellent
Phone photo of a printed page, good light Very good
Photo of a sign or label at an angle Fair — crop and straighten first
Handwriting Poor

Crop the image to the text area with Crop Image and rotate it straight with Rotate Image before running OCR for the best results.

Related tools

Extract the text layer from digital PDFs with PDF to Text, read QR codes with the QR Code Scanner, or count the words of the extracted text with the Word Counter.

Frequently asked questions

Is my image uploaded to a server?
No. Text recognition runs in your browser using Tesseract, an open-source OCR engine. Only the engine and the language model are downloaded from a public CDN; your image never leaves your device.
How accurate is the OCR?
Clear, printed text in screenshots and scans is usually recognized almost perfectly. Accuracy drops with small or blurry text, low contrast, unusual fonts, handwriting, curved pages and busy backgrounds. Always proofread important text.
How can I get better results?
Use the sharpest, highest-resolution image you have, crop it to the text, make sure it's straight and evenly lit, and choose the correct language. For a page with two languages, keep "also English" ticked.
Does it recognize handwriting?
Only neat, printed-style handwriting with limited accuracy. The engine is designed for printed and typed text.
Why does the first run take longer?
The OCR engine and the language model (about 2–15 MB depending on the language) are downloaded the first time and then cached by your browser, so later runs start quickly.

Related tools

PDF to TextPull the text out of any PDF and copy it or save it as a plain .txt file.QR Code ScannerRead any QR code from an image, a screenshot or your camera — right in your browser.Word CounterCount words, characters, sentences and paragraphs as you type, with reading and speaking time.Image Color PickerClick anywhere on an image to get its exact HEX, RGB and HSL color — plus its main color palette.