Retyping text out of a photo or screenshot is slow and error-prone. Optical character recognition (OCR) reads the text in an image and turns it into real, selectable text — so you can copy a quote from a book photo, pull a phone number off a screenshot, or digitize a handwritten note (with mixed results) in seconds instead of minutes.
MakeitPDF's Image to Text tool runs OCR on your image directly in the browser and gives you the result as copyable text and a downloadable .txt file — free, in 29 languages.
Key takeaways
- Supports JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF and GIF images.
- Recognizes text in 29 languages, from English and Spanish to Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.
- Upload several images at once — each is labeled and appended to one text output.
- Get the result as copyable text on the page and as a downloadable .txt file.
Table of contents
How to extract text from an image
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Open the Image to Text tool and upload one or more images.
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Choose the language that matches the text in your image for the best accuracy.
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Click Extract Text. The recognized text appears on the page, ready to copy.
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Copy the text directly, or download it as a .txt file.
Getting the most accurate results
- Pick the right language. OCR accuracy drops sharply if the selected language doesn't match the text — a French document read as English will produce garbled output.
- Use a clear, well-lit photo. Sharp focus, even lighting and minimal glare all improve recognition. Blurry or angled phone photos of text lose accuracy.
- Printed text works best. Standard printed or typed text is recognized reliably. Handwriting recognition is far less consistent and results vary a lot depending on legibility.
- Straighten the image first. Heavily rotated or skewed text reduces accuracy — crop and straighten with a photo editor if needed before uploading.
Common use cases
- Digitizing notes. Turning a photo of a whiteboard or printed handout into editable text.
- Screenshots. Pulling text out of a screenshot instead of retyping it — error messages, quotes, addresses.
- Business cards and labels. Extracting contact details or product information from a photo.
- Multilingual documents. Extracting text in a language you don't type easily on your keyboard.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work on handwriting?
OCR is optimized for printed and typed text. It can sometimes read clear, neat handwriting, but accuracy is much lower and unpredictable compared to printed text.
Can I extract text from a scanned PDF instead of an image?
Yes — for PDFs, use the OCR PDF tool, which adds a searchable text layer directly to the PDF rather than exporting a .txt file.
Can I upload more than one image at a time?
Yes — upload several images together and each one's text is labeled with its filename and combined into one output.
What image formats are supported?
JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF and GIF are all supported.
