Only if any of these tools were available in the yesteryears, things would’ve been easier especially while copying lengthy text from image files during school and college. We’ll be talking about five different apps which help you extract text from an image file and for the sake of comparison we’ll also be testing out each tool with the same image file containing text and showing the unique outputs too.
OneNote
Microsoft’s OneNote is one of the most used Note keepers among Windows users and its OCR tool has been a bit out of the spotlight whenever the app’s name pops up, but it’s not all that bad and is easy to use too. Steps to extract text from an image:
Open a new file in OneNoteInsert ‘Picture’ and right click on it.Click on the ‘Copy Text’ option.Paste the text anywhere you need to.
Result Text OCR SANIPLE TEXT More Topics Guiding Tech, part of Guiding Media, is an online tech publication from India that publishes brilliant, insightful and useful stories on tech, science and culture for the educated and urban Indian youth. Our mission is to go deep and tell the news beyond the news, show how tech is changing lives, help our audience make their lives easier by making tech work for them and share stories of people and businesses that are doing awesome things. At more than 2 million visitors per month it seems we’re on track.
Google Drive
Another great and commonly used alternative to extracting text out of an image is Google Drive. Most of the users are unaware of Google Drive’s capability to do so and it’s actually the simplest of all. Steps to extract text from an image:
Upload image into Google DriveRight-click on it and go to ‘open with’Click on Google DocsA new Google Docs file will be created containing the extracted text.
Result Text OCRSAMPLETEXT Guiding Tech, part of Guiding Media, is an online tech publication from India that publishes brilliant, insightful and useful stories on tech, science and culture for the educated and urban Indian youth. Our mission is to go deep and tell the news beyond the news, show how tech is changing lives, help our audience make their lives easier by making tech workfor them and share stories of people and businesses that are doing awesomethings. At more than 2 million visitors permonth it seems We’re on track,
Online OCR
If you do not wish to install any other tools from this list and just wish to get your work done as soon as possible, hassle-free, then Online OCR is the perfect avenue for your needs. It’s convenient, quick, can attempt to translate your text into several other languages as well as give the text output in a Word, Excel and Text formats. Steps to extract text from an image:
Click on ‘Select file’ tab and upload the image.Select Language and format for the output.Enter ‘Captcha’.Click Convert and you’ll find the result.Download the file or simply copy the text from the box below.
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Copyfish
In case you’re looking at an image directly from your browser and wish to extract the text then and there, Copyfish is a simple Google Chrome extension that’s ready to serve your needs. You don’t need to download an image and then upload it into Copyfish’s interface, rather just take a screenshot of the image directly from the browser window using the extension tool. Steps to extract text from an image:
Open the image on Chrome — locally or on the web.Click on the Copyfish icon located next to the address bar.Select the area of the image where the text is located.
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Photron Image Translator
Photron Image translator app is available on Windows 10 PC and tablets for free and there are two additional features of the app that you might find useful — it can translate the extracted text to other languages as well as read it aloud. Steps to extract text from an image:
Choose ‘Image’ as input methodChoose ‘Gallery’ as Source (if image is in your desktop storage)Select the file you want to be extracted.
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