Easy ways to extract text from images

Easy ways to extract text from images

Have you ever taken a photo of handwritten notes, a slide in a presentation, or a recipe you didn't want to retype? With tools readily available, you can easily extract the text from any image which saves you time, improves accessibility and keeps your information organized. 

Text extraction (optical character recognition) can be useful for:

• Digitizing handwritten notes

• Copying text from a screenshot of a slide or infographic

• Saving recipes from cookbooks, photos or handwritten

• Saving contact information from a business card

• Digitizing printed documents to search or share

• Improving accessibility making text readable by screen readers

You don't need special software. Several free tools make it easy:

• Windows Snipping Tool: In Windows 11, you can extract text directly from your screenshot. Just snip the area, click Text Actions, and copy the text.

• Google Keep: Add an image to a note, then use the “Grab image text” option to extract and paste it below in the note.

• Google Gemini: Upload an image and ask it to “extract the text”.

• Camera apps on mobile devices: On Android and iOS, point your camera at text—look for “Copy text from image” or Live Text features.

Article by Karen Matthes, Extension Learning Technologies, klm@umn.edu