There are many reasons to copy the text you see in an image. You may have a screenshot with instructions or a photo of a billboard with details. This guide includes several ways to extract text from an image, depending on your platform or device.

1. Extract Text on Windows

There are two ways to copy text from an image on Windows. You can use the OneNote built-in OCR (optical character recognition) feature or the Microsoft PowerToys tool.

Use OneNote on Windows

Open OneNote and insert the image you want to copy the text from. Select Insert -> Pictures, choose the location and image, then click Open.

With the image on your OneNote page, right-click it, and select Copy Text From Picture.

You’ll have the text on your clipboard to paste it on Windows where needed.

Use Microsoft PowerToys