With the various tools available, you no longer need to manually copy text from images on your computer. You can use Windows 11's built-in or free third-party tools to extract and copy text from pictures. I'll teach you how to use these tools.
Use the Snipping Tool
One way to extract text fragments from images on Windows 11 is to use the built-in Snipping Tool. This tool allows you to take screenshots on your Windows PC, but you can also use it to copy text from images. The tool has a built-in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature.
To use the OCR feature in Snipping Tool, the app version must be 11.2308.33.0 or later. You can check the current Snipping Tool version by opening the app, selecting the three dots in the top right corner, selecting "Settings", and scrolling down to see the current version.
If you're using an older version of the app, update the app from the Microsoft Store. To do so, open Windows Search, type Microsoft Store, select the application in the search results, select "Library" in the left sidebar, and then select "Update" next to "Snippet Tools".
Open the image from which you want to copy text. Launch the Snipping Tool, select "Snipping" (camera icon), and then select "New" to create a new snip.
Open the image from which you want to copy text. Use the Snipping Tool's Snipping feature to take a screenshot of your image. When you see a screenshot in the Snipping tool, click Text Actions at the bottom of the tool.
To copy the selected text in the image, highlight the text on the image, right-click on the text, and select "Copy" or press Ctrl+C. To copy all the text of the image, click "Copy All Text" at the top of the screenshot.
You can paste the copied text in any text editor on your PC. Just access the text area, right-click on it, and select "Paste" or press Ctrl+V.
PowerToys
PowerToys is a tool that adds a lot of additional features to your Windows 11 PC. One of these features is the ability to extract text from any part of the screen, including images and videos. Then copy the text to the clipboard.
If you prefer, you can install PowerToys from GitHub, or use the Microsoft Store to get the app as shown below.
Start by opening Windows Search, then type Microsoft Store, and then launch the Microsoft Store application. Select the search box at the top, type PowerToys, and press Enter. Select Microsoft PowerToys in the search results, and then select Install. Wait for the Microsoft Store to install PowerToys on your PC. Once done, launch the tool.
In the left sidebar of the main interface of PowerToys, scroll down and click "Text Extractor". This is the feature you'll use to extract text from images. In the right pane, click Open Settings. In the new window that opens, enable the "Enable Text Extractor" toggle.
Note: In the future, you can turn off the feature by disabling the "Enable Text Extractor" toggle.
You've successfully enabled the feature. To use it, open the image from which you want to copy the text. On your keyboard, press the Windows+Shift+T key combination. Select the area on the image where you want to copy the text. The text extractor will recognize the text in the selected image area and copy the text from there to the clipboard.
You can use the "Paste" option or press Ctrl+V to paste the copied text in any text editor.
PowerToys allows you to change the keyboard shortcuts that extract text from images. To do this, open PowerToys, select "Text Extractor", select "Open Settings", select "Activate Shortcut", and select a new key combination.
You can extract text from almost anything displayed on the screen, including videos, websites, and more.
Use OneNote
If you have Microsoft OneNote installed on your PC, you can use the built-in OCR feature of this note-taking app to copy text from images. Please note that OneNote only allows you to copy all the text in an image; You can't selectively copy text.
To use it, launch Windows Search, type OneNote, and select the application in the search results. When the app opens, start a new annotation where you'll add an image. Then, add an image by selecting "Insert > picture >From file". Navigate to the folder where you saved the image and select it.
When the added image appears in OneNote, right-click the image and select "Copy Text in Picture".
OneNote will recognize all the text in a given image and copy it to the clipboard. You can now use Paste or Ctrl+V to paste the copied text anywhere.
Use TextGrab
Text Grab is a third-party app that you can use to grab text snippets from images. You can download this app from the source code on GitHub or get it from the Microsoft Store for $9.99.
To get the app for free, launch your favorite web browser and head to Text Grab's GitHub page. Click on "Text Grab.exe" to download the app installer and then run the downloaded installer.
In the first window of the app, scroll to the bottom and select OK. Then, open the image you want to copy the text from and select the text area of that image.
Text scraping will automatically look for text in the selected area. Click on the notification you received from the app to access the copied text. To copy the text to the clipboard, click on the "Copy and Close" option. To save the copied text to a text file, select Save File > As, navigate to the folder where you want to save the file, click the File Name field and type the file name, and then select Save.
summary
That's how you can quickly and easily copy selected or all text from an image on your Windows 11 computer. Some of these tools allow you to copy text from anywhere on the screen, which means you're not limited to images.