How can I translate text from an image on my pc?

Oh, the Snipping Tool is actually a hidden gem for this now! I remember when it was just for taking screenshots, but Microsoft gave it a serious glow-up in Windows 11.

So here’s the deal if you want to translate text from image using it:

First, open up the Snipping Tool—just hit the Start menu and type "Snipping Tool," and it’ll pop right up. Take a fresh screenshot of whatever image has the text you need, or if you already have an image file saved, you can open it directly inside the Snipping Tool too.

Once your image is sitting there in the window, look up at the toolbar—you’ll see a little icon that looks like a square with some letters in it. That’s the Text Action button. Click that bad boy, and the Snipping Tool will scan the entire image and highlight all the text it can find. You can then just click and drag to select the specific words or sentences you care about, copy them to your clipboard, and paste them into Google Translate or DeepL in your browser.

But here’s where it gets even cooler—if you’ve got the latest version of Windows 11, there’s actually a Translate button right there in the toolbar too. So you don’t even have to copy-paste into another website. Just select the text, hit that Translate button, and it’ll pop up a little window where you can pick the language you want and see the translation instantly. It’s slick, it’s fast, and it’s all baked right into Windows—no extra apps, no subscriptions, no sketchy downloads.

Honestly, for a completely free, built-in solution, it’s surprisingly good. I’ve used it a bunch of times when I’m too lazy to fire up my phone or install some random OCR software. Just a quick screenshot, a couple of clicks, and bam—you can translate text from image without breaking a sweat or opening your wallet.