How to copy text from an image
iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac can all turn a photo of text into text you can select and paste. Here is how on each.
How this works without typing it out
Optical character recognition (OCR) looks at the shapes in a photo and matches them to letters, effectively reading the image. It works well on clear, well-lit, front-on text such as a document, a sign, a screenshot or a book page, and less well on handwriting, tight curves, or text at a steep angle.
On an iPhone or iPad
Live Text does this automatically (iOS 15 and later): open the photo, and if it contains text, a small icon with lines appears in the corner, or you can touch and hold directly on the text. A selection appears around the words; tap Select All and then Copy to put it on the clipboard. This also works live through the Camera app, without taking a photo first.
On Android
Google Lens does the equivalent: open the photo in Google Photos, tap the Lens icon, and it highlights the text it recognises; tap and drag to select some or all of it, then Copy. Google Lens is also built into the Camera app on many Android phones for live text recognition.
On Windows
Windows 11's Snipping Tool has a Text Actions button after you take a screenshot: it draws boxes around recognised text so you can select and copy it directly, without saving the image first. For text in a photo already on disk, open it in the Photos app and use its text-copy feature if your version has it, or use a browser tool.
On a Mac
Live Text works the same way as on iPhone: open the photo in Preview or Quick Look, hover or click on the text, and it becomes selectable; Cmd-A then Cmd-C selects and copies it. Right-clicking the image also offers Copy All Text as a shortcut.
For batches, scans and stubborn images
The built-in tools above work on one image at a time and need a fairly clean photo. Stayput's image to text tool runs Tesseract OCR entirely in your browser, so you can drop in several files (JPG, PNG, HEIC, WebP) and get text out of each without uploading anything or repeating the steps per photo. It is also useful for older scans and photos taken at an angle, where phone-camera Live Text sometimes misses lines.
Questions
Can I copy text from a photo without an app?
Yes. iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac all recognise text in a photo natively; a dedicated OCR tool is mainly useful for batches or harder images.
Does OCR work on handwriting?
Poorly, in general. All the tools above are built and tuned for printed text; handwriting recognition is a separate, much less reliable technology.
Why did some words come out wrong?
Low resolution, glare, a tight crop, or an unusual font all reduce accuracy. Retaking the photo straight-on, in even light, and at a higher resolution usually helps most.
Can I extract text from a screenshot?
Yes, screenshots work the same as any other photo for all of these tools, and are often easier since the text is usually sharp and unobstructed.