How to Copy Text from an Image — 5 Fast Methods
You've got a screenshot, a photo of a document, or an image with text in it — and you need to select and copy that text. Images aren't selectable by default, but there are several fast, free ways to extract the text from them.
Here are five methods that work across Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
Method 1 — Browser-Based OCR (Works on Any Device)
The fastest cross-platform option: visit screenshot-to.com/screenshot-to-text in any browser and drop your image in. The OCR engine (Tesseract.js) runs in WebAssembly inside your browser tab — your image never leaves your device.
Steps:
- Open screenshot-to.com/screenshot-to-text
- Drag your image into the upload area, or click to browse
- Wait 2–5 seconds while the text is recognised
- Click Copy to copy the result to your clipboard
Best for: Any device, any OS, privacy-sensitive content (no upload to any server).
Accuracy: Excellent on clean screenshots of digital text. Good on photos of printed documents.
Method 2 — Google Lens (Android, iOS, and Chrome Desktop)
Google Lens is one of the most accurate OCR tools available. It works on mobile and on Chrome desktop.
On Android:
- Open Google Photos, tap the photo
- Tap the Lens icon (or long-press the image in Chrome)
- Tap Text → select the text → Copy
On iOS:
- Open the Google app or Google Photos
- Tap Lens and select your image
- Tap Text to enter text-select mode → Copy all text
On Chrome desktop:
- Right-click any image on a webpage
- Select Search image with Google Lens
- Click the Text tab to see and copy the extracted text
Best for: High accuracy, including photos at an angle. Not suitable for sensitive content (sent to Google).
Method 3 — macOS Live Text (Mac Only, macOS 12+)
If you're on a Mac running Monterey (12) or later, text extraction is built into the operating system.
Steps:
- Open your image in Preview, Finder Quick Look, or Safari
- Hover over the text in the image — a cursor icon appears
- Click and drag to select text, then ⌘C to copy
You can also right-click any image in Finder and press Space to Quick Look it, then select text directly.
Best for: Mac users who want zero friction and fully local processing.
Note: Live Text works in system-detected languages. It uses Apple's Neural Engine for on-device processing — no internet required.
Method 4 — Windows Snipping Tool / PowerToys (Windows 10/11)
Windows 11 (22H2 or later) Snipping Tool:
- Press Windows + Shift + S to take a snip
- Open the Snipping Tool app and open your saved screenshot
- Click the Text Actions button (the AA icon in the toolbar)
- Select and copy the extracted text
Windows 10 / older Windows 11 — Microsoft PowerToys:
- Download PowerToys from Microsoft
- Enable Text Extractor in the PowerToys settings
- Press Windows + Shift + T to trigger text extraction on your screen
- Draw a rectangle around the text — it copies to clipboard automatically
Best for: Windows users who want a native, fast, offline option.
Method 5 — iOS 16+ Live Text (iPhone / iPad)
Since iOS 16, iPhones and iPads have built-in text recognition for images in the Photos app.
Steps:
- Open the image in Photos
- Tap the Live Text button (looks like lines of text) in the bottom right
- Tap Select All or drag to select text
- Tap Copy
This works entirely on-device using Apple's Neural Engine. No internet connection required.
Also works in: Safari (long-press any image on a webpage → Copy Text from Image), Notes, Messages.
Accuracy Tips for All Methods
| Tip | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Use PNG instead of JPEG | PNG is lossless — JPEG compression adds noise that confuses OCR |
| Crop tightly around text | Less background = fewer false positives |
| Keep images high-resolution | More pixels per character = better recognition |
| Avoid screenshots of screenshots | Each generation adds blur and compression artifacts |
| Straighten photos of documents | Perspective distortion is the #1 cause of OCR errors |
Which Method Should You Choose?
| Need | Best Method |
|---|---|
| Any device, any OS | Browser OCR at screenshot-to.com |
| Highest accuracy | Google Lens |
| Mac, fully offline | macOS Live Text |
| Windows, fully offline | Snipping Tool / PowerToys |
| iPhone/iPad | iOS Live Text |
| Privacy-sensitive content | Browser OCR (no upload) or OS native tools |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does OCR work on handwritten text? Standard OCR (Tesseract, Google Lens, Live Text) works best on printed text. Handwriting recognition requires specialised models and is available in some Google Lens versions.
What image formats work with browser OCR? PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, and BMP. PNG gives the best results for screenshots.
Can I extract text from a PDF image? If the PDF contains scanned images (not real text), you need OCR. If it has real text layers, just copy it directly from a PDF viewer.
Is there a limit on file size? screenshot-to.com processes files up to 20 MB entirely client-side — no upload required.
Ready to copy text from your image? Try the free browser OCR tool →