Guide5 min read
How to Extract Text From a Photo (No Upload)
Extract text from receipts, business cards, whiteboards, and book pages shot on your phone. Free, browser-based OCR — nothing uploads.
Extract text from image
Extract text from a photo or screenshot with OCR. Runs locally in your browser — free, instant, nothing uploaded. Accuracy depends on image quality.
Drop an image here, click to browse, or paste
A photo or screenshot works — JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, HEIC, and more
✓Free forever
✓Runs locally
✓No account
✓No watermark
Related tools
OCR PDF
Recognize text in a scanned PDF and download a searchable PDF or plain text. Runs locally, nothing uploaded.
Extract text from PDF
Pull selectable text out of a PDF with paragraph structure preserved. Extract the whole document or a page range.
Scan barcode
Decode a barcode or QR code from an uploaded photo or screenshot — UPC, EAN, Code 128, and more.
Everything you need to pull text out of an image
Real OCR, not a guess
Powered by tesseract.js, the same open-source OCR engine used by PixelTools' OCR PDF tool — trained to recognize real printed and typed text, not just detect where text might be.
100% private
Your image is never uploaded. Recognition runs entirely in your browser via WebAssembly — nothing is sent to a server, ever.
Live progress, no guessing
A real progress bar tracks actual recognition progress on larger or higher-resolution photos, so you always know it's working.
Copy or download instantly
Copy the recognized text straight to your clipboard, or download it as a plain .txt file — whichever fits your workflow.
Works on photos and screenshots
A phone photo of a sign or receipt and a screenshot of a chat or document both work the same way — no special preparation needed.
No account, no watermark
No sign-up, no usage limit, nothing added to the result — free the way it should be.
Three steps to extracted text
- 1
Upload a photo or screenshot
Drag and drop an image onto the page, click to browse, or paste from your clipboard. Supports JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, HEIC, and more.
- 2
It recognizes text automatically
Recognition starts the moment the image loads — no button to click. A progress bar shows real recognition progress for larger or higher-resolution photos.
- 3
Copy or download the text
The recognized text appears in a read-only panel. Copy it to your clipboard or download it as a .txt file.
Built for anyone stuck retyping text from a picture
Whether it's a photo of a whiteboard, a screenshot you can't select text from, or a sign in a language you don't speak — PixelTools reads the text and gives you back plain, copyable text, free, with no upload.
Whiteboards and handouts
Snap a photo of a whiteboard, presentation slide, or printed handout after a meeting or class and turn it into editable text instead of retyping it.
Receipts and printed documents
Pull the text off a receipt, letter, or printed form when you just need the words, not a scanned document — no need for a full OCR PDF workflow.
Signs and labels while traveling
Get plain text out of a photographed sign, menu, or label so it's easy to paste into a translator or search engine.
Screenshots of text you can't select
Recover copyable text from a screenshot of a chat, a locked PDF viewer, a video frame, or any app that won't let you select text directly.
Frequently asked questions
Is this image to text tool free?
+
Yes, completely free with no limits. Extract text from as many images as you want, as often as you want. No subscription, no trial, no account required.
Is my image uploaded to a server?
+
No. Recognition happens entirely in your browser using tesseract.js, an open-source WebAssembly OCR engine. Your photo never leaves your device — there is no server upload, no cloud processing, and no data stored anywhere.
What image formats can I use?
+
JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, TIFF, and HEIC/HEIF. A phone photo, a screenshot, or a scanned page all work the same way.
How accurate is the text recognition?
+
It depends on image quality. A clean, well-lit, in-focus photo of clear printed or typed text is typically very accurate; a blurry, low-resolution, or heavily stylized image (handwriting, decorative fonts, low contrast) will have more errors. Always double-check important text before relying on it.
Why didn't it find any text in my image?
+
The most common causes are blur, very small or low-resolution text, poor lighting or low contrast between the text and its background, or an image that genuinely has no text in it. Try a sharper, closer, better-lit photo.
Can it read handwriting?
+
It's built and tuned for printed and typed text (signs, documents, screenshots, book pages), not handwriting recognition — results on handwritten text are unreliable.
What languages does it recognize?
+
English. Recognizing other languages accurately needs a different trained model, which this tool doesn't yet support.
Is there a limit on image size?
+
Images up to 25MB are accepted. Larger, higher-resolution photos simply take a little longer to recognize — the progress bar shows real progress throughout.