Copy text from images and scans
Get editable text out of a photo of a document, a scanned page, a screenshot, a notice or a book page, in English or Urdu. Then copy it into Word, WhatsApp or email instead of typing it again. The text recognition (OCR) runs in your browser, so your image is never uploaded.
Tips for better results
- Use a sharp, straight photo in good light. Scan to PDF can straighten and clean a page first.
- Crop away everything except the text with Crop Image.
- Printed text works much better than handwriting.
Questions
How well does Urdu work?
Clear printed Urdu in Naskh-style fonts works reasonably well. Nastaliq (the usual newspaper and InPage style) is harder for OCR, so expect mistakes and check the text. For InPage files, use the InPage to Unicode converter instead.
Why is the first run slow?
The first time, your browser downloads the text-recognition engine and language (about 5–7 MB). After that it's much faster.
Can it read handwriting?
Only very neat handwriting, and with errors. It's built for printed text.
Can I get text from a PDF?
If you can select the text in the PDF, use PDF to Word. For a scanned PDF, convert its pages to images with PDF to JPG, then use this tool.