What's the easiest way to convert text from picture screenshots?

You can use the snipping tool to easily extract text from screenshots or pictures.

Certainly! Using online services to extract text from pictures on a Windows computer can be convenient but also has drawbacks. Uploading images to online servers may risk exposing sensitive or private information. Free online OCR tools may not always produce perfect results, especially with complex or poor-quality images. Requires a stable internet connection and may involve longer processing times. Free services often have restrictions on the size or number of images you can process.

The best way to extract text from picture on Windows computer is use built-in tools like Microsoft OneN0te on Windows, which offers free OCR capabilities locally without uploading your images online, providing more privacy and reliable results.

Steps to Extract Text from Picture Using Preview with Live Text:

1. Open the image in Preview: Right-click the image file, choose Open With > Preview.

2. Use Live Text:

To extract text from picture. Hover your cursor over the text in the image. If the image contains recognizable text, you'll see the cursor change or a text selection outline appear.

Click and drag to select the text.

3. Copy the Text:

Once selected, press Command + C to copy.

4. Paste and Edit:

Paste the text into any document or note with Command + V.

Note: If Live Text isn't available, you can also try opening the image in Photos app or N0tes, which also support Live Text on compatible Macs.

Using Google Keep on your Windows computer is a convenient way to extract text from picture. Here's how you can do it:

1. Open Your Browser and Sign in to Google Account:
2. Create a New Note with Your Screenshot:
   Click the "Take a note" area or the "New note" button.
   Click the Image icon (a small picture icon) at the bottom of the note or drag and drop your screenshot into the note.
3. Add Your Screenshot:
   Upload your screenshot file or drag it into the note.
4. Extract Text from Picture:
   Once the image is inserted, click on it.
   A small menu will appear; select "Grab image text".
   Google Keep will analyze the image and extract the text, which will appear in the note below the image.
5. Copy the Extracted Text:
   You can now select, copy, and paste the extracted text into any document or editor.

Hey Vivianie,

I totally get the frustration—manually typing out text from screenshots is a total time sink! The good news is there are several super simple ways to extract text using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tools, and many of them are free and built right into your device or available online. Since you're looking for the easiest options, I'll focus on straightforward, no-fuss methods that work well for screenshots from articles and documents. I'll prioritize AI-powered ones because they've gotten incredibly accurate in 2025, especially for handling varied fonts, layouts, and even blurry images.

1. Use Built-in Features on Windows or Mac (Simplest Native Option)

• On Windows (via Microsoft PowerToys): If you're on Windows 11, download the free Microsoft PowerToys from the Microsoft Store (it's official and lightweight). Enable the "PowerToys Run" or "Image Resizer" tool, but the real gem is the built-in OCR in the Snipping Tool or Photos app. Just take a screenshot with Snipping Tool (Win + Shift + S), annotate if needed, then right-click the image in File Explorer > "Open with Photos" > right-click the image > "Copy text from picture." It's instant and accurate for printed text. For more power, use Azure AI Vision's free tier through the Microsoft Learn portal—upload your screenshot and get extracted text in seconds.
• On Mac: macOS has a native Live Text feature (available since Monterey). Take a screenshot (Cmd + Shift + 4), open it in Preview, hover over the text, and select/copy it directly—it's like magic for screenshots. No extra software needed! For batch processing, use the built-in Shortcuts app to automate OCR on multiple images.

These are dead simple if you want zero downloads, and they handle English and many other languages well.

2. AI Chat Tools for Quick, No-Setup Extraction (My Top Recommendation for Ease)

If you want something even faster and more versatile (especially for batches of screenshots), just throw them into an AI chat interface—these multimodal models now excel at OCR without any specialized setup. Upload the image, ask "Extract all the text from this screenshot," and boom, you get editable text. It's often more accurate than traditional OCR for complex layouts like articles, and you can refine it (e.g., "Summarize this extracted text"). Here's what works best based on 2025 benchmarks:

• ChatGPT (with GPT-4o or o1 models): Free tier available on chat.openai.com. Upload your screenshot directly in the chat—it's incredibly accurate for screenshots, even handwritten notes or mixed layouts. Paid Plus version ($20/month) handles larger files and more uploads. Users rave about its speed for document extraction.
• Google Gemini (gemini.google.com): Completely free with a Google account. Upload images and prompt it for text extraction—it's powered by advanced models like Gemini 2.5 Pro, which shine for scene text in screenshots. Great for multilingual support and integrates seamlessly if you're already in the Google ecosystem (e.g., via Google Drive).
• Microsoft Copilot (copilot.microsoft.com): Free with a Microsoft account. Since this is a Microsoft community, this is a natural fit—upload screenshots and ask it to extract text. It uses Azure AI Vision under the hood for top-tier accuracy on printed/handwritten text, and it's optimized for Windows users.

Pro tip: For batches, zip your screenshots and upload to ChatGPT or Gemini—they can process multiple at once. This method is by far the quickest if you're already chatting with AI daily, and it's gotten so good that manual corrections are rare.

3. Free Online OCR Websites (For One-Off or Batch Uploads)

If you prefer dedicated tools without chatting:

• OCR.space (ocr.space): Totally free, no login required. Upload screenshots (supports JPG, PNG, PDF up to 5MB), select language, and download extracted text as TXT or Word. It's fast and handles screenshots from articles well—great for quick jobs.
• ImgOCR.com: AI-powered and free (no login). Drag-and-drop your screenshot, and it extracts text in seconds. Supports bulk uploads and works on blurry images—perfect for documents.
• OnlineOCR.net: Free for basic use, converts images/PDFs to editable text. Simple interface, multilingual, and accurate for printed text in screenshots.

4. Reliable Mobile Apps (If You're on the Go)

• Google Lens (Free on Android/iOS): Built into the Google app or camera—snap or upload a screenshot, tap "Text," and copy it instantly. Super accurate for real-time extraction and works offline for basics.
• Microsoft Lens (Free): Great for Windows Phone or cross-platform. Scan screenshots or documents, extract text, and export to Word/OneNote. Integrates with OneDrive for easy batching.
• Adobe Scan (Free tier): AI-enhanced OCR for screenshots; turns them into editable PDFs with searchable text.

For accuracy across the board, AI tools like the ones above outperform older OCR in 2025, especially for non-perfect screenshots (e.g., angled shots or low-res). Start with the built-in options or an AI chat for the absolute easiest path—I've used ChatGPT for this exact workflow, and it saves hours!

If none of these click or you run into issues (like with handwriting), let us know more details about your setup, and I can refine the suggestions. What's your OS or device?

Cheers!

NewOCR is a free online OCR tool that requires no registration or installation. It supports 122 languages, utilizes the Tesseract OCR engine, handles poorly scanned or photographed images, allows you to adjust the recognition area after uploading files, and lets you copy or download results in multiple formats.

How to Extract text from picture on Windows 11/10

1. Open the NewOCR.com website, click the upload area, select the image containing text to extract, and upload it.
2. After upload completes, click Upload + OCR. The website will automatically perform OCR text recognition on the image.
3. Once recognition is complete, the extracted text will appear at the bottom of the page. After verifying the content is accurate, click Copy to Clipboard.
4. Open your desired document or text editor, press the paste shortcut key, and the text from the image will be available.

If you don t want to manually input everything, the simplest solution is to open your browser and use NewOCR. It meets your needs and is accessible to everyone.

The text from picture relies on OCR technology, which can be realized in the simplest way Using the screenshot tool that comes with Windows can be done.

How to use the Win screenshot tool

• Press the shortcut key Win + Shift + S to capture the area where you need to recognize the text.
• Click the pop up notification to open the screenshot.
• Click the text action icon at the top.
• The tool will automatically highlight all recognized text, press Ctrl + C to copy the text.
• Press Ctrl + V to paste the text into a document, notepad or any other place.

On Mac system, use Preview or Photos app to open the image containing text, select the recognized text and press Cmd + C to copy and then paste it to the target location to complete the image text extraction operation.