Image to Text Converter

Extract text from any picture, screenshot or scan — free, and without your image ever leaving your device.

Drop an image here, paste a screenshot, or choose a file PNG · JPG · WEBP · GIF · BMP

Convert a picture to text online: upload a photo, screenshot or scanned page and copy the words out of it.

How to convert an image to text

  1. Drop your picture into the box above, paste a screenshot straight from your clipboard, or pick a file.
  2. Choose the language of the text in the image — this matters more than people expect, and is the single biggest factor in accuracy.
  3. Press Extract text. The first run downloads the recognition engine; after that it is instant.
  4. Copy the result, or download it as a .txt file.

Your image never leaves your device

Most image-to-text sites upload your picture to their server and read it there. This one does not. The recognition engine is compiled to WebAssembly and runs inside your own browser tab, so the photo — a passport, an invoice, a private message, a whiteboard from a meeting — stays on your machine. You can watch it work with your network disconnected after the first load.

Getting accurate results

OCR reads shapes, so it rewards clean input. A straight-on, well-lit photo of printed text at a reasonable size is read almost perfectly. Accuracy drops with blur, glare, heavy skew, very small type, textured backgrounds and low contrast. If the result is poor, the fix is almost always a better photo rather than a different tool: get closer, flatten the page, and avoid shadows.

Handwriting

This engine is trained on printed type, not handwriting. Neat block capitals sometimes come through, but cursive generally will not. That is a genuine limitation of the technique, not a setting you can turn on — treat handwritten notes as out of scope.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this image to text converter free?
Yes, completely. There is no sign-up, no page limit, no watermark and no paid tier. Because the work happens on your own device rather than on a server, there are no processing costs to pass on.
Is my image uploaded to a server?
No. The recognition engine runs inside your browser through WebAssembly, so the picture is never transmitted anywhere. Only the engine itself is downloaded, once, and it is the code that comes to your image rather than your image going to the code.
Can I copy text from a screenshot?
Yes, and it is the best case for OCR — screenshots are sharp, evenly lit and perfectly aligned, so accuracy is usually near perfect. You can paste one straight from the clipboard without saving a file first.
Which languages can it read?
Fifteen are offered here, including English, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Pick the language that matches the text in the picture — choosing the wrong one is the most common cause of garbled output.
Why is the first scan slower?
The first run downloads the recognition engine and the language data, a few megabytes in total. Your browser caches them, so every scan after that starts immediately.
Can it read a PDF?
Not directly — feed it an image. Take a screenshot of the page, or export the PDF page as PNG or JPG first, then drop that in.
Does it keep the original layout?
It preserves line breaks and reading order, but not columns, tables or styling. You get the words as plain text, ready to paste into a document and format yourself.