Screenshot to text converter
Stop retyping text trapped in a screenshot. OCRphoto reads the visible copy while keeping the interaction lightweight and private.
First extraction free · no account needed · your file is deleted after it is read
Copy the message, error, or caption you actually need.
Before using screenshot OCR, check whether the original app still lets you select the text. If it does not, crop the screenshot around the useful passage while leaving enough context to understand labels and line order.
Review URLs, commands, account numbers, and error codes character by character. A screenshot to text result can be fluent while one small symbol is still wrong.
Where this one earns its keep
Messages and posts
Error messages and logs
Web pages saved as images
One file in, one block of text out
error-message.png
Connection failed Please check your network and try again.
Your computer may already be able to do this
It is worth knowing what is built in before uploading anything. On a Mac, Live Text works on any image in Preview, Photos, or Quick Look: open the screenshot, hover over the words, and the cursor changes to a text cursor so you can select and copy them. On an iPhone or iPad the same feature lives in Photos. On Windows 11, the Snipping Tool has a text-actions button that copies the words out of a capture, and PowerToys adds a system-wide Text Extractor shortcut.
Those tools are fast, free, and work offline, so use them when they work. They also have consistent blind spots: small or low-contrast type, unusual fonts, screenshots that have been resized or re-compressed on their way through a chat app, and anything more than lightly blurred. They tend to fail quietly, returning a plausible half-transcription rather than an error.
That is the gap this page fills. Upload the screenshot here when the built-in tool returns nothing, returns something obviously wrong, or when you are on a machine where it is not available.
Check the original before you OCR the picture of it
If the screenshot came from a web page, a PDF, or a document that still exists, go back to the source and select the text there. It costs less effort than any conversion, and it preserves links, punctuation, and line structure that no OCR pass can reconstruct from an image.
OCR is the right answer when the original is genuinely out of reach: an app with no copy option, a chat someone forwarded as a picture, a screenshot of a screen-share, an error dialog, a page behind a login you no longer have. That is most of the reason people search for this — the words exist, and only as pixels.
Getting a clean read
Screenshots are the easiest input OCR gets. The text was rendered by a computer, so the strokes are sharp and the contrast is even — no glare, no perspective, no motion blur. Accuracy problems almost always come from what happened to the file afterward rather than from the capture itself.
- Capture at full resolution rather than photographing the screen with a phone.
- Save or export as PNG. JPEG compression softens exactly the thin strokes that carry small type.
- Crop to the passage you need, leaving the interface chrome and unrelated images out.
- For very small text, enlarge the crop before uploading — while it is still sharp, not after.
- Avoid re-sending through a messaging app, which recompresses the image on the way.
What comes back
The result is plain, editable text: searchable, quotable, and ready to paste into a ticket, a document, or a message. It is not a visual copy of the screen. Buttons, avatars, timestamps in their original positions, and the column structure of a table are not reproduced, and a chat thread comes back as lines of text rather than as bubbles attributed to speakers.
For screenshots that are soft, scaled down, or heavily compressed, unblur text covers what can and cannot be recovered from a degraded image.
Step by step: How to copy text from a screenshot on Mac or Windows
Common questions about screenshot to text
Clear, well-lit text gives the model more signal. These are the details that matter for this format.
How do I copy text from a screenshot?
Upload the screenshot here and the words come back as editable text. On a Mac, try Live Text in Preview or Photos first; on Windows 11, try the Snipping Tool text button. Use this when those return nothing or return it wrong.
Can screenshot OCR read text from a phone?
Yes. Upload a screenshot from iOS, Android, or desktop in PNG, JPEG, or WebP format.
How do I extract text from a screenshot on a Mac?
Open the image in Preview, Photos, or Quick Look and hover over the words — Live Text lets you select and copy them directly. If the text is small, low-contrast, or slightly blurred, uploading the screenshot here is usually more reliable.
How do I copy text from a screenshot on Windows?
The Snipping Tool in Windows 11 has a text-actions button that copies the words from a capture, and PowerToys adds a system-wide Text Extractor. For older versions, or when those miss, upload the screenshot here.
Will it read small text?
It can, but enlarging a small crop before uploading usually improves accuracy. Enlarge while the screenshot is still sharp rather than blowing up a saved copy.
Why is PNG better than JPG for screenshots?
JPEG compression blurs the thin strokes that distinguish similar characters. PNG keeps screen text exactly as it was rendered, which is why it is the better save format for anything you plan to OCR.
Is screenshot text extraction free?
Your first OCR extraction is free and does not require an account.
Another file, another page
Screenshot to text, without the retyping
Your first extraction is free and does not need an account.