Free Screenshot to Text Converter
Paste, drop or upload a screenshot and get clean, editable text back. OCR runs in your browser. The image is never uploaded.
Paste a screenshot with Ctrl/Cmd V, drop an image here, or click to choose a file.
PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF or BMP · processed on your device, never uploaded
How This Screenshot to Text Converter Works
Text stuck inside an image is text you cannot edit, search or paste into a draft. This tool reads it out with OCR (optical character recognition) and then tidies what OCR always gets slightly wrong: hard line breaks, words split across lines, and doubled-up spacing.
- Add the image. Press Ctrl/Cmd V to paste a screenshot straight from your clipboard, drag a file onto the box, or click it to browse.
- Read it. Extraction starts automatically. Your browser's own text detector is used when it has one; otherwise a small on-device OCR engine is fetched once and runs locally.
- Clean and copy. The recognised text lands in the editable box, the tidied version appears beside it, and Copy Output puts it on your clipboard.
What "clean" means here
Raw OCR output is rarely ready to use. Three toggles control the tidy-up, and each one can be switched off if it is wrong for your image:
- Join wrapped lines — screenshots break sentences wherever the image ends, not wherever the sentence ends. This re-flows them into real paragraphs while leaving blank lines, bullet points, numbered items and headings alone.
- Fix split words — rejoins words that were hyphenated across a line break, so "exam- ple" becomes "example" without touching genuine hyphens.
- Tidy spacing — collapses the double spaces and stray indentation OCR produces.
Because the extracted text sits in an editable box, you can correct anything the OCR misread before copying. If you are cleaning AI-generated text that happened to arrive as a screenshot, send the result through the AI Text Cleaner next, or check the wording with Text Compare after you edit it.
Your Screenshot Never Leaves Your Browser
Extraction happens on your device. The image is not uploaded to a server, not stored, and not used to train anything. There is no account and nothing to sign into. Close the tab and the text is gone. This is the same rule every tool on this site follows, and it is why the tool works on screenshots containing private messages, client work or anything else you would rather not send to a third party.
Getting Better Results
- Crop tightly. Text-only screenshots read far better than full-desktop captures with menus and sidebars.
- Keep it large. Text under roughly 12px tall is where accuracy drops off. Zoom in before you screenshot.
- Keep the contrast. Dark text on a light background is the easy case; thin grey text on grey is the hard one.
- Avoid recompression. A PNG straight from the screenshot shortcut beats the same image after a trip through a chat app.
What It Does Not Do
It reads printed text in English. Handwriting, photographs of screens, heavily stylised display type and very dense small print will come back partly wrong. Check the editable box before you trust the output. It does not read PDF files directly; screenshot the page you need, or copy the text if the PDF allows it. Nothing is translated, and no layout such as tables or columns is reconstructed. The output is plain text in reading order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my screenshot uploaded to a server?
No. Recognition runs on your device — either your browser's built-in text detector or a local OCR engine. The image is never sent anywhere, and nothing is stored.
Which image formats work?
PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF and BMP. PNG screenshots from the operating system shortcut give the best results because they are not recompressed.
How do I paste a screenshot?
Take the screenshot with your normal system shortcut, then press Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac) anywhere on this page. The image appears in the box and extraction starts. Pasting text still works normally in the text boxes.
Does it work offline?
If your browser has a built-in text detector, yes. Otherwise the page needs a connection the first time, to fetch the OCR engine; your browser may cache it for later use.
How accurate is the OCR?
On clean, high-contrast screenshots of printed English text it is very good. On handwriting, photographs, tiny text or unusual display fonts it will make mistakes. The extracted text is editable, so you can correct it before copying.
Can it read a PDF?
Not directly. Screenshot the page you need and paste it here, or copy the text from the PDF if it allows selection.
Which languages are supported?
English. Other languages are not enabled yet.
Is the extracted text kept anywhere?
No. It lives in the page while the tab is open and disappears when you refresh or close it.