How to extract text from an image
Image to text, also called OCR (optical character recognition), turns the letters in a picture into characters you can select, search and edit. PicX sends your image to its servers, where an AI vision model reads all the visible text exactly as it appears and returns it in reading order.
For the best result, give it a clear image: the text in focus, reasonably large and not cut off at the edges. Crop out anything you don't need, such as a busy background, and rotate the photo upright first. Dense small print photographed from far away is the most common cause of mistakes.
- Shoot straight on, not at an angle, and avoid glare on glossy paper.
- Screenshots beat photos of a screen: they have no moiré or reflections.
- Printed text is read far more reliably than handwriting.
- Check numbers (0/O, 1/l) in the result before you rely on them.
- Tables come back as lines of text, so paste them into a spreadsheet and split by spaces or tabs if you need columns.
How to copy text from an image on iPhone, Android and Windows
Your phone may already do this for single photos. On iPhone, Live Text lets you press and hold on text in a photo and tap Copy. On Android, Google Lens (in Google Photos or the camera) has a Text option. On Windows 11, the Snipping Tool has a Text Actions button that copies text from a screenshot.
A web tool is useful when you're on a computer without those features, when the image came from email or a website, or when you want the whole page of text at once instead of selecting it line by line.
Once you have the text, a quick proofread is worth it. AI text recognition is very good on clean screenshots and printed pages, but it can still misread a smudged character, merge two columns or skip text that runs off the edge of the photo. For anything legal, financial or medical, compare the result with the original image before you rely on it.
