Image to text
Copy text from photos and screenshots. Nothing uploaded.
Nothing uploaded. Try it in airplane mode.
Reads English text. The first time, your device downloads the text reader (about 4 MB) and keeps it.
How it works
- Pick your photos.Photos of documents, signs or screenshots.
- We fix them on your phone.The text is read on your device.
- Save them back to Photos.Copy it, edit it, or save it as a .txt file.
Text out of a photo, without sending it anywhere
Photographed a letter, a recipe, a whiteboard or a page of notes? Pick the photo and the text is read on your phone, ready to copy into a message, an email or a document. Screenshots work too, which is handy for text you can’t select in an app.
Text recognition (also called OCR) usually means uploading the photo. Here it runs in the browser with Tesseract, the open-source engine many apps use, so a payslip or a medical letter stays on your device.
For the clearest result
Take the photo straight on, in good light, with the page filling the frame and the text in focus. Printed text reads best. Neat handwriting sometimes works; joined-up handwriting usually doesn’t. You can fix any mistakes in the text box before you copy it.
Questions
Which languages does it read?
This page reads English, including letters with accents in names. Each language version of the site reads its own language: for Spanish text, use the Spanish page, and so on. Only that language’s reader is downloaded.
Can it read handwriting?
Clear, printed-style handwriting sometimes. It is built for printed text, so joined-up handwriting comes out with many mistakes.
Can I read several photos at once?
Yes. Pick them all and each is read in turn. Copy all text puts them together, each under its file name.
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. The text is read on your phone or computer, in the browser. The first time, your device downloads the text reader (about 4 MB) and keeps it. After that, it works in airplane mode.