Screenshot to text
Updated Nothing is uploaded
Copy text you can't select — an error dialog, a video frame, a chat, a slide or a locked PDF view. Take a screenshot, paste it here with Ctrl+V (⌘V on Mac) and the text appears ready to copy.
How to copy text from a screenshot
- Take a screenshot to the clipboard (see the shortcuts below).
- Click anywhere on this page and press Ctrl+V / ⌘V. You can paste several screenshots in a row.
- The text is recognized in a few seconds — small UI text is upscaled and dark-mode screenshots are inverted automatically.
- Press Copy text, or edit it first. Download .txt saves it as a file.
Screenshot-to-clipboard shortcuts
| Device | Shortcut | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 10/11 | Win + Shift + S, drag an area | Ctrl+V here |
| Mac | ⌘ + Ctrl + Shift + 4, drag an area | ⌘V here |
| Chromebook | Ctrl + Shift + Show windows | Ctrl+V here |
| iPhone / iPad | Side + Volume up, then share the image | Choose the image file here |
| Android | Power + Volume down | Choose the image file here |
Why screenshots need special handling
Interface text is tiny — often 11–14 px tall at 100% zoom — while Tesseract is tuned for print scanned at 300 DPI, where letters are 2–3 times bigger. That's why this page enlarges small screenshots (up to 3×) before reading them. Dark themes are the other common failure: the engine expects dark text on light paper, so when most of the image is dark it's inverted first. On a high-DPI (Retina) screen your screenshots are already 2× and usually read perfectly.
Tips for clean results
- Capture only the text you need — toolbars, icons and avatars can turn into stray characters.
- Zoom the page or app in (Ctrl/⌘ +) before taking the screenshot for noticeably better accuracy.
- Code and terminal output keep their characters but not always their exact indentation — check spaces after pasting.
Private by design
Text recognition runs entirely in your browser using Tesseract (open-source OCR) compiled to WebAssembly. Your images are never uploaded; the only thing downloaded is the language model for the languages you pick, which your browser then keeps for next time.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
Are my images uploaded?
No. Text recognition runs in your browser with Tesseract compiled to WebAssembly. The only download is the language model itself (1–4 MB, once per language); your images never leave your device.
How do I paste a screenshot?
Copy the screenshot to your clipboard, click on this page (not inside a text box) and press Ctrl+V on Windows/Chromebook or ⌘V on Mac.
Does it work with dark mode screenshots?
Yes. With “Fix dark mode” on, images that are mostly dark are inverted before OCR so light text on a dark background is read correctly.
Can I copy text from a screenshot on my phone?
Yes — choose the screenshot from your photos with the picker. iPhone and Android also have built-in text selection in their photo apps; this tool works on any device and lets you edit and download the result.
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