How to Extract Text from Photo with 4 Free Methods

In important meetings or forums, we often take a large number of photos containing important data and information, and it will be very time-consuming if we sort them manually. Therefore, knowing how to extract text from photos is a lifesaver.

This article will guide you to use practical tools to extract text from photos and text and also cover some tips on how to extract data from PDF.

Instantly Extract Text from Photo for Free

If you are a Mac user, it is highly recommended that you use PDFgear software to extract text from photos instantly for free. In some emergencies, we often need to quickly extract important text from photos.

Implementing this method saves your precious time and allows you to simply extract text from photos without any complicated process. So, let’s explore how to do this.

Step 1. Download and install PDFgear software on your computer.

Step 2. Launch PDFgear software on Mac.

Step 3. Click Local File OCR.

Step 4. Upload the photo from which you want to extract text.

Step 5. Click Detected Language to select the language of the text.

Step 6. The extracted text will appear in the results, click Copy Texts to paste it into your Word file or click Export to get the text file.

Convert Photo to Text Online

If you prefer not to download software onto your devices, we recommend using PDFgear online for converting photos to text directly online. This method ensures accessibility for all devices, regardless of whether you’re using a Mac or Windows system.

Users can avoid the need for software downloads, thus preserving storage space for essential files. Importantly, this method is particularly useful for text-based image files, enabling you to obtain editable Word documents and simplifying your tasks.

Step 1. Go to PDFgear JPG to PDF online converter.

Step 2. Click Choose files to upload the Photo with text.

Step 3. Click Add Files to add additional Photos.

Step 4. Click Convert then Click Download to get the PDF file.

Step 5. Use PDFgear PDF to Word online converter.

Step 6. Click Choose files to upload the converted PDF file.

Step 7. Click Download to get the editable Word file.

Extract Text from Photo with Tesseract OCR

If you know how to use open-source software, it’s recommended to extract text from photos with Tesseract OCR. Compared with other OCR methods, Tesseract OCR supports multiple image formats such as JPG and PNG with high accuracy and provides more language options. In addition, due to it being open-source, you can customize and fine-tune to optimize the recognition results. Follow the tutorial below to use Tesseract OCR.

Step 1. Download and install Tesseract OCR.

Step 2. Define patch to tesseract. exe and image by inputting the command:

path_to_tesseract = r’C: \Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe’

path_to_image = ‘images/sampletext1-ocr.png’

Step 3. Point tesseract_cmd to tesseract. exe by inputting the command:

pytesseract. tesseract_cmd = path_to_tesseract

Step 4. Open the image in Tesseract and extract text by inputting the following command:

img = Image. open (path_to_image)

text = pytesseract.image_to_string(img)

Step 5. Once the command completes, you should see a text file with the extracted text in the same directory where you ran the command.

Extract Text from Photo with OneNote

If you are a Microsoft user and have downloaded OneNote to your device, you can try using OneNote to extract text from photos. This method is compatible with different platforms including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Additionally, OneNote provides a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to insert photos, extract text, and paste where you want. So, let’s follow the tutorial to use it.

Step 1. Download and Launch Microsoft OneNote.

Step 2. Create a new page in Microsoft OneNote.

Step 3. Click Insert at the top.

Step 4. Click File or Picture to upload the Photo with text.

Step 5. Import the Photo with text to Microsoft OneNote.

Step 6. Control-click the picture or right-click with your mouse and then click Copy Text from Picture.

Step 7. Paste the extracted text wherever you need it.

FAQs

How can I extract text from an image on an iPhone or iPad?

iOS devices have a feature called Live Text. You can open your image in the Photos app, tap the Live Text icon, and then either select ‘Copy All’ or drag to select specific text to copy.

Can Google’s suite of apps be used to extract text from images?

Yes, Google Drive and Google Docs can be used together to extract text from images. Google Photos also has the capability to recognize and extract text from images.

What is OCR and how does it help in extracting text from images?

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a technology that can detect and convert different types of documents, such as scanned paper documents, PDFs, or images captured by a digital camera, into editable and searchable data.

How can I extract text from a photo on a Samsung device?

On Samsung devices, you can open the Gallery app, tap on the photo, and then tap on the yellow (T) icon to highlight and copy the text.

Are there any browser extensions that can extract text from images on the web?

Yes, extensions like Project Naptha automatically make text in images on web pages selectable, allowing you to copy it directly. Copyfish is another option that allows you to select and extract text from images on demand.