Image to text: extract the text from a photo
Took a photo of a notice, a receipt, a page of a book or a slide? Turn it into text you can copy, edit or translate, instead of typing it all again.
Drop the photo, screenshot or scan you want the text from
JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC or TIFF · you can pick several at once
- Choose one or several images: JPG, PNG, WebP, iPhone HEIC or TIFF.
- Pick the language of the text and press Extract text.
- Copy the text directly, or download it as a .txt file or as a searchable PDF that keeps the image.
How the text is read
Each image is opened in your browser and read by Tesseract, the open-source OCR engine originally developed at HP and later by Google, compiled to WebAssembly. It uses the LSTM neural-network model of the language you choose.
Small images, such as phone screenshots, are enlarged before reading, because the engine is far more accurate when letters are around 30 pixels tall. Besides the plain text, CLEKARA builds a PDF with your original image and the recognized words placed invisibly on top, so you can search it with Ctrl+F and select text in it.
Worth knowing
Printed text in a sharp, straight, well-lit photo is recognized very well. Handwriting, strong angles, blur, reflections and decorative fonts reduce accuracy; the result shows the average confidence so you know how much to check.
The first time, the engine and language data (about 10 MB) are downloaded and then cached. Each image takes one to a few seconds.
Frequently asked questions
How do I copy text from a picture?
Open the picture here, choose the language and press Extract text. The text appears in a box with a Copy all button, and you can also download it as .txt.
Can I extract text from several images at once?
Yes. Add as many as you need; the text of each one comes out in order, separated by the file name, and all of them go into one searchable PDF.
Does it work with iPhone photos (HEIC) and screenshots?
Yes. HEIC, JPG, PNG, WebP and TIFF are supported, and small screenshots are enlarged automatically to read them better.
Does it read handwriting?
Only neat block letters, and not reliably. It is designed for printed or typed text.
Are my images uploaded?
No. The text is recognized inside your browser and the images never leave your device.