Image to text (OCR)
Choose a photo, screenshot or scan and press Extract text: Tesseract OCR reads the English text on your device, then you can copy it or download it as a .txt file. Nothing is uploaded.
- ๐ Runs on your device
- โค 0 bytes uploaded
- ๐ด Works offline
- โ Free, no sign-up, no watermark
- โฌ 7 MB engine, first use only
How to use Image to Text (OCR)
- Choose or drop one or more images (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEICโฆ).
- Keep "Clean up the image first" on for phone photos.
- Press Extract text and wait for the engine (downloaded once, about 7 MB).
- Copy the text or download it as a .txt file.
About Image to Text (OCR)
Nolo runs Tesseract, the open-source OCR engine originally developed at HP and later Google, compiled to WebAssembly (tesseract.js) with its LSTM neural-network English model. Recognition runs in a background worker so the page stays responsive.
Results are not perfect: always check names, amounts and numbers. Average confidence is shown so you know how sure the engine was.
Is it private?
Yes. Image to Text (OCR) runs entirely in your web browser using your device's own processor. Your files are never uploaded to Nolo or anyone else, and the page cannot send them anywhere: its security policy only allows it to talk to nolotools.com, which has no place to receive files. Results are kept encrypted on your device for 60 minutes in Your files, then deleted automatically, or straight away with Delete all. How Nolo works.
Questions and answers
Are my images uploaded?
No. Everything happens in your browser on your own device. Your images are never uploaded to Nolo or anyone else, and the tool keeps working with the internet switched off.
Which languages can it read?
English (Latin letters, digits and punctuation). It may read other languages written in the Latin alphabet partly, but accents and special letters will often be wrong.
Can it read handwriting?
Poorly. Tesseract is built for printed text. Neat block capitals sometimes work; cursive usually does not.
How do I get better results?
Use a sharp, well-lit photo taken straight on, crop to just the text, and make sure the text is at least about 20 pixels tall.
Does it work offline?
Yes, after the first use. The OCR engine and English language data (about 7 MB) are downloaded once from Nolo and then stored by your browser.
Can I OCR a PDF?
This tool reads images. Convert the PDF pages to images first, then extract the text.