How to copy text from a screenshot

Extract Text from Image · 3 min read

You screenshotted something, an error message, a chat, a receipt, and now you need the words as text, not a picture. Here's how to pull them out in one click.

A screenshot is an image, so there's no text to select, only pixels. OCR reads the letters in the shot and turns them back into real text you can copy, search or paste anywhere.

The fastest way: paste and copy

Extract Text from Image is a free OCR Chrome extension made for exactly this.

1. Take your screenshot as usual.
2. Paste it into the extension with Ctrl+V, or drop the file in.
3. It reads the text on your device in a second.
4. Copy the result, or download it as a clean .txt file.

You can also skip the screenshot entirely: draw a box over any part of a web page and grab just that text. Either way, it runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.

On PC, Mac or Chromebook

Because it's a Chrome extension, the same flow works on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook, anywhere Chrome runs. No separate app to install per device.

More text-from-image guides

• How to copy text from an image
• How to extract text from a picture
• How to convert a JPG or PNG to text