How to copy text from a picture or screenshot on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android

Windows 11: Text actions in Snipping Tool

Snipping Tool reads the text in any snip, and Microsoft says the recognition runs entirely on your device.

1. 1Press Windows key + Shift + S and drag around the text you want.
2. 2Click the notification to open the snip in Snipping Tool.
3. 3Click Text actions in the toolbar. The text in the image is highlighted.
4. 4Click Copy all text, or drag across part of it and press Ctrl + C.

Text actions also has Quick redact, which hides email addresses and phone numbers before you share the screenshot.

Windows: PowerToys Text Extractor, for text on screen

If the text is on screen right now, in a video, a locked PDF or an error dialog, Microsoft's free PowerToys has a faster route. With PowerToys installed and Text Extractor switched on in its settings, press Windows key + Shift + T and drag a box around the text. It goes straight to your clipboard. It reads the languages Windows has text recognition packs for, and Microsoft suggests a quick proofread, since no text recognition is perfect.

Mac: Live Text in Preview and Photos

Macs read text in images with Live Text. Open the image in Preview or Photos, hold the pointer over the text, and drag to select it as you would in a document. Control-click the selection and choose Copy. If Preview will not let you select anything, choose Tools, Text Selection. Live Text is not available in every language or region.

iPhone and iPad: Live Text

Live Text works in Photos, on screenshots, and through the Camera before you even take a picture.

1. 1Open the photo or screenshot in Photos.
2. 2Touch and hold a word, then move the grab points to cover the text you want.
3. 3Tap Copy, or tap Select All first to take everything.
4. 4To grab text without taking a photo, point the Camera at it and tap the Live Text button.

Live Text needs an iPhone XS, iPhone XR or later. If nothing happens when you touch and hold, go to Settings, General, Language & Region, and turn on Live Text.

Android: Google Lens and Circle to Search

On Android the tool is Google Lens, which is built into Google Photos. On supported phones, Circle to Search can read text straight off the screen in any app.

1. 1Open the screenshot or photo in Google Photos.
2. 2Tap More at the top, then Google Lens.
3. 3Tap and select the words you want, then copy them.
4. 4For text on screen in another app, touch and hold the home button or navigation handle to start Circle to Search, then tap Select text if it is not selected already.

Menu names and placement vary by phone and app version. Circle to Search works on select Android phones, starting with the Pixel 6.

Finding the screenshot again later

Copying the text is the easy part. Finding the screenshot again next week, when all you remember is that it had the Wi-Fi password on it, is harder. Photos on iPhone and Mac, and Google Photos, can search the text in pictures saved to your library. Pictures you copied and never saved, out of a chat, a web page or a screenshot you pasted straight away, never reach a photo library at all.

Searching pictures by their words, with Clypy

Clypy reads the text in every picture you copy as it arrives, on your device, so searching your clipboard history for "wifi password" finds the photo of the café's card. It uses Apple's Vision on a Mac and iPhone, Windows' own text recognition on a PC, Google's ML Kit on Android, and a small downloadable model on Linux. Nothing you copy is sent to a server to be read. On a computer, the clip's details show the text Clypy found with a Copy text button, and the full-screen viewer has Copy all text from image.

Text recognition is free, and each device reads its own pictures: the text is never synced. Windows reads the languages your PC is set up for. Linux reads English and other Latin-script text once you download the model in Settings, On-device AI. On phones, Clypy searches the text but does not show it yet.