In the past, it was quite impossible to extract text from an image and save it in an editable format. So if a person wanted to convert an image to a textual format, then they had to manually type down visible content from the image into a blank word document. Now you don’t have to worry about manual extraction of text from an image as you have digital ways to do it. In this post, we are going to list out some of the popular ways to convert images to text, and that too for free.
If you use these ways, then you can easily extract text from images or PDF files yourself. You don’t have to hire another person for this purpose.
Three easy ways to convert images into textual format
Out of dozens of different ways, we have discussed the easiest ones for your knowledge. The methods we have discussed below involve the use of OCR technology.
OCR, which is also known as optical character recognition, refers to the technology which is used to scan images, detect and extract text from them, and then convert it into document formats that can digitally be saved.
Convert image to text on Windows
The first easy way to convert images to text is by using your windows devices. If you have an image that has text on it, then you need to transfer it to your PC. Now, if your personal computer has the latest version of Windows running on it, then extracting text from an image is going to be a piece of cake. All you have to do is open the image with the default photo gallery app of Windows.
Once you open the file, you will see many editing options on the right corner of the image. From these options, you need to find the ‘OCR’ option. Using this option would convert all visible text on the image to either text or word format. Know that this feature is only available in Windows 8 and above versions.
Convert image to text with Google docs
A very popular way to extract text from an image is by using Google docs. “Google docs” isn’t just a tool used to create well-formatted documents; rather, you can use it for these kinds of unconventional purposes as well. If you have an image that has plenty of text on it, then you need to upload it on your Google drive. Now from there, you need to right-click on the image file and go to the “open with” options. In the list, you would see Google Docs, which you need to click on. Now when you select Google docs, it would take a few moments for the textual document to be created. Google docs are powered by AI and OCR features which help in text extraction. You can save the Google document in MS word format.
Convert image to text online
A very easy way to extract each and every letter of text from an image is by using image-to-text converter tools. Image-to-text converter tools use OCR technology and AI, which makes their results quite accurate and reliable. All you have to do is take an image of notes or papers having text on them and save it in your local gallery. Now open up the image to text converter tool on your browser and upload that particular image in the tool.
Once the image is added, you need to click on the ‘convert to text’ button and wait for the results. In less than ten seconds, you are going to get the text in the output box. You can copy the text in your clipboard, or you can easily save it in Word format. If the text has confidential information in it, then you need to convert word to PDF and lock the file.
End words
Here in this post, we have discussed three powerful yet free ways to convert an image into a textual format. Know that images can be in JPG, PNG, and also in PDF format. If you have graphic content saved in any of these formats, then you can extract text from them by using these three methods. If you are looking for an efficient and quick way for the image to text conversion, then you need to try the OCR-powered image-to-text online converter tools!