Guide
How OCR Text Extractor works
A step-by-step look at how we turn your images into editable text — using AI OCR first, with a browser fallback if needed.
Step 1: Upload an image
Drag and drop an image onto the upload area, or click to choose a file from your device. Supported formats include PNG, JPG, WEBP, and GIF. The preview shows exactly what will be processed.
Step 2: Configure options
Choose the language of the text in your image so AI OCR and the browser fallback can target the right script. Enable Clean Mode when working with app screenshots, web pages, or documents where layout matters — it helps reconstruct reading order and focus on dialog boxes in the browser fallback.
Step 3: Image preprocessing
Before recognition, the image passes through a preprocessing pipeline designed for real-world photos and screenshots:
- Smart upscaling — small images are enlarged so characters are easier to read
- Enhanced pass — grayscale, contrast stretch, and sharpening for clean screenshots
- Binary pass — adaptive thresholding for uneven lighting or faint text
- Modal detection — auto-crops centered dialogs in UI screenshots
Step 4: OCR recognition
The tool first sends the image to cloud AI OCR for extraction. If that request fails or returns no text, it automatically falls back to Tesseract.js in a WebAssembly worker so your browser tab stays responsive and you still get a result.
Step 5: Copy or download
Review the extracted text in the output panel. Use the copy button to paste into Word, Google Docs, email, or code editors. Download as a plain .txt file for archiving or further editing.
Tips for better accuracy
- Use well-lit photos with the text in focus
- Crop the image to only the text you need
- Select the correct document language before extracting
- Try Clean Mode for screenshots and full-page captures
- For faint scans, ensure the text contrasts with the background
- Proofread output — OCR is powerful but not perfect