Image to text: copy the words out of a photo

How to extract text from an image

1. Choose the image. A JPG, PNG or WEBP photo, a screenshot, or a PDF of one page. Up to 5 MB.
2. Press Get the text. The tool reads the image with OCR. On a clear photo this takes a few seconds.
3. Read the first lines. You see the start of the text before you sign up, so you know the photo was readable.
4. Enter your email. We send a 6-digit code. Typing it in opens the full text and creates a free account if you have none. No password needed.
5. Copy or download. Copy the text in one click, or download it as a .txt file or as a Word document.

What the tool reads well, and what it doesn't

Printed text on a flat, evenly lit page is where OCR does its best work. Letters, forms, receipts, book pages, screenshots and slides usually come back almost word for word, in reading order. Tables come back as rows, with a tab between cells in the .txt file and as a real table in the Word file.

Reads well

Printed letters, forms, invoices, receipts, screenshots, book and magazine pages

Reads with errors

Low-resolution or blurred photos, pages shot at an angle, text over a busy background

Reads badly

Handwriting, faint or overlapping stamps, signatures, very small print

Not read

Text inside pictures and logos, and HEIC photos, which the upload does not accept

Long numbers are the weak spot. A digit lost in an account number or an ID number is easy to miss, so compare those digit by digit with the photo before you rely on them.

How to take a photo that converts cleanly

• Shoot straight down at the page, with all four corners in the frame.
• Use daylight or an even lamp, and avoid your own shadow across the text.
• Keep the text large in the frame. Google's guidance for its own converter is text at least 10 pixels high, sharp images, even lighting and clear contrasts[1].
• Turn the photo right side up before you upload it.
• If you have the original PDF or a screenshot, use that instead of a photo of a screen.

Free ways to get text from an image

For one line on your own phone, Live Text is the quickest. For a full page you want to keep, edit or paste into a document, a file you can download is easier to work with.

From text to a translated Word file

The free tool gives you the text in the language of the photo. If you need the page in another language with its layout kept, the LoreAI app reads the whole document, translates it into one of 105 languages and returns an editable Word file. Your first document is free, up to 3 pages. For a document photo into English, see how to translate an image to English, and for a picture into Word see the photo to Word converter.

What happens to your image

The image goes to LoreAI's OCR provider, is read once and is deleted there right after. The text is kept on LoreAI's server for 1 hour so you can open it after signing up, and only the browser that uploaded it can see it before then. After that hour it is deleted.

Questions people ask