How to Extract Text From Images: Top 10 Tools with Step-by-Step Process

The need to extract text from images takes place at certain places, whether you want to digitize printed materials or improve accessibility. Thanks to the advancement in technology, there are several text extractors available around the internet that take a matter of seconds to extract text information from images.

In this informative context, we are going to reveal a few best image to text converters that show how to extract text from images or scanned photos step-by-step:

1. Adobe Acrobat

• To start, you need to launch the Adobe Acrobat program and navigate to > File > Open.
• Choose the photo for which you want to make an extraction.
• Very next, hit “File” > “Save As” > “Microsoft Word” or “Plain Text”.
• Right after that, customize the file conversion settings to your preference.
• Click “Save” and let this program extract text from the image.

Adobe Acrobat is referred to as the most reliable tool for exporting image data as text files. The upside is that it offers multiple output formats and even functions to adjust settings for better accuracy.

2. Google Docs

• First, you have to open Google Docs “docs.google.com”.
• Click on the “File” and just choose “Open”.
• Import (upload) the image for extraction of text.
• Once your image file is properly inserted, right-click on it, and choose “Open With” > “Google Docs”.
• Finally, the extracted text will appear in the document. Edit your preference and save it.

It is a free web-based solution that allows you to extract text from images, screenshots, or pictures without any hassle. This program uses advanced OCR technology to convert your existing images into editable or searchable text.

3. Microsoft OneNote

• Open Microsoft OneNote and simply create a new note or open your existing one
• Then, you ought to insert the picture into the particular note
• Very next, right-click on the image and choose the option > “Copy Text from Picture”
• The newly extracted text will be ready and available for editing and sharing

Microsoft OneNote is indicated as part of the MS Office suite that comes with a built-in OCR feature for text extraction. This is an easy-to-navigate tool that helps to copy text from images within your notes.

4. Online OCR Tools

• Visit a reputable online OCR tool like “cardscanner.co” > “image to text converter”.
• Add up to 20 images or PDFs at once.
• Make basic settings (if essential).
• Click Convert.
• Copy the extracted text with a single click or download the file into your desired text file format without any hassle.

Cardscanner.co is one of the convenient options for simple and quick text-based extraction. The upside is that it allows you to extract text from blurry or pixelated photos without any huge human intervention.

5. Abbyy FineReader

• To start, you need to launch ABBYY FineReader onto your system.
• Navigate to > “Open” option and choose the image for text-based extraction.
• Then, select any one of the output text formats (e.g. Word, PDF, etc.).
• Hit the “Convert” button and let ABBYY start extracting text from the image.

If you’re seeking professional OCR software that lets you extract text from images accurately, then ABBYY FineReader is the best option.

Related reading: Best Ways to Convert JPG to PDF

6. Capture2Text

• Download and install Capture2Text from the source “capture2text.sourceforge.net”.
• Then, start activating the program by pressing a hotkey “Ctrl + Shift + 2”.
• Now, it’s time to select the portion of the image that contains the text.
• Once done, the newly extracted text will be fully copied to your clipboard, and pasted onto your desired location.

Capture2Text is referred to as a lightweight and free OCR program that quickly captures and extracts text from any part of your screen.

7. Tesseract OCR (Command Line)

• First, you have to install the Tesseract OCR onto your system.
• Then, you need to open the command line interface (e.g. Command Prompt or Terminal).
• Very next, move to the directory that contains the image.
• At last, run the command “tesseract input_image.png output_text.txt”.

Get this open-source OCR engine that is loaded with powerful text extraction capabilities. Although it involves some command line usage, it works best to extract text from images.

8. Evernote

• Open Evernote > “create a new note” or > “open an existing one”.
• Then, you have to insert your image into the note.
• Make right-click on the image and choose the “Convert to Searchable PDF” option.

Evernote is one of the fastest OCR-based sources swiftly converting text within images into searchable PDF files.

9. Microsoft Office Lens (Mobile App)

• Download and install this app by Microsoft onto your mobile device.
• Then, simply launch this application and capture an image that contains the text.
• Choose “Recognize Text” option for extracting the text.

Microsoft Office Lens is a handy mobile app that helps to capture and extract textual data from images with a single go.

10. FineReader Online

• Move to FineReader Online web-based utility “finereaderonline.com”.
• Upload the image that you wish to turn into text.
• Hit the “Recognize” option for text-based extraction.

This is the best online OCR-dependent service by ABBYY that offers high-quality text extraction without any additional software installation.

Conclusion

Converting images to text is depicted as a valuable skill that can save your time and effort along with enhancing accessibility. The OCR converters and their step-by-step procedures outlined in this article take a matter of seconds to extract text from an image. Stick with any one of the given tools and simplify the process of transforming images into actionable text files.