1. Add images
Add an image to start. The first run downloads the OCR engine and language data (about 3–6 MB), then it is cached.
2. Your text
Convert an image to text in your browser
This free image to text converter reads the words in a photo, screenshot or scanned page and turns them into text you can copy, edit or save. It uses optical character recognition (OCR) from the open-source Tesseract engine, running entirely on your own device. Most "image to text" sites upload your picture to their server first. Here nothing is uploaded, so it is safe for ID cards, bills, bank letters and private notes.
How to extract text from an image
- Drop one or more images in the box, tap to pick them from your phone gallery, or press Ctrl+V to paste a screenshot.
- Choose the language of the text. For mixed text such as English with Hindi, pick a second language too.
- Press Extract text. The first run downloads the OCR engine and language file once; later runs start straight away.
- Check the result, fix any small mistakes, then press Copy text or Download .txt.
Tips for accurate OCR
- Straight and sharp beats big. Hold the phone parallel to the page, avoid shadows and make sure the text is in focus.
- Rotate sideways photos. Use Rotate 90° if your image is turned, because OCR expects upright lines.
- Keep Enhance on for photos of paper and for white-on-dark screenshots; the tool converts to high-contrast grayscale and flips dark backgrounds automatically. Turn it off for already clean scans if the result looks worse.
- Join broken lines merges lines inside a paragraph so text pasted into Word or an email flows normally.
- Printed text works best. Neat handwriting may partly work, but cursive handwriting is not reliable with any free OCR engine.
Supported languages
English, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Arabic. Each language file is 1–3 MB and is cached by your browser after the first use.
Need to prepare the image first? Convert iPhone photos with HEIC to JPG, cut out just the part you need with the image cropper, or turn several images into one file with Image to PDF. To count the words you extracted, paste them into the word counter, or fix capital letters with the case converter.
Frequently asked questions
Is this image to text converter free?
Yes. It is completely free, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily limit. You can convert as many images as your device can handle.
Are my images uploaded to a server?
No. The OCR engine (Tesseract, compiled to WebAssembly) and the language files load from itcoh.com, and the recognition runs inside your browser. Your image and the extracted text stay on your device.
Can it read Hindi or other Indian languages?
Yes. You can pick Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi or Urdu, and combine any of them with English for mixed text.
Can I extract text from a screenshot?
Yes. Take the screenshot, click on this page and press Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on Mac) to paste it directly. Screenshots usually give the most accurate results because the text is sharp.
Does it work with handwriting?
Clear printed handwriting may partly work, but OCR is designed for printed and typed text. Cursive or joined handwriting will have many errors, so check the result carefully.
Can I convert a PDF to text?
This page accepts images. If your PDF is a scan, take a screenshot of each page or export the pages as images, then add them here. Several images can be processed in one go.
Why is some text wrong or missing?
Blurry, tilted, low-light or very small text reduces accuracy. Retake the photo straight on, rotate it upright, crop to the text area and keep Enhance and Upscale switched on.