Blog › Image to Text (OCR) guide

How to Extract Text from an Image with OCR

The text is right there in the photo — a sign, a receipt, a screenshot, a page — but you cannot copy it. OCR (optical character recognition) reads the picture and gives you editable text. This guide uses OCR that runs entirely in your browser: the image is never uploaded, which matters when the text is an invoice, an ID or anything private.

Step by step

1. Open the Image to Text tool and add a clear photo or screenshot.
2. Wait while the recognition engine reads the image (the first run loads the language data).
3. Read the extracted text — then Copy it, or Download it as a .txt file.
4. Proofread once: OCR is fast, but names, numbers and unusual fonts deserve a check.

Tips for better results

• Straight, well-lit, high-contrast photos recognize best. Crop to just the text block when possible.
• Screenshots of documents recognize near-perfectly; handwriting is much harder for any OCR.
• For receipts and invoices, verify totals and dates digit by digit before using the numbers.

Frequently asked questions