--- title: How to Extract Text From a Screenshot | Relic description: The words in a screenshot are not stuck there. How to extract text from a screenshot on iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac, and copy it straight to the clipboard. canonical: https://relic.space/blog/how-to-extract-text-from-a-screenshot source: https://relic.space/llms.txt --- [Copying text from images and PDFs](https://relic.space/blog/topics/copy-from-images) # How to extract text from a screenshot A screenshot looks like a dead end when you need the words inside it, but the text is fully recoverable. Here is how to pull it out on iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac, and copy it straight to your clipboard. [JGJordan Gibbs](https://relic.space/authors/jordan-gibbs) June 29, 2026 6 min readUpdated September 12, 2026 Optical character recognition reads the words inside an image and turns them into selectable, copyable text. You screenshot an error message, a recipe, a Wi-Fi password on a poster, or a paragraph from a video call, and then you want the actual words, not a picture of them. The problem is that a screenshot is an image. The text you can clearly read is made of pixels, so there is nothing to highlight and nothing to copy. The good news: every major device can now read those pixels back into real text, usually in a couple of taps or one keyboard shortcut. The technology behind this is **optical character recognition**, or OCR. It looks at the shapes in an image, recognises them as letters and numbers, and hands you back editable text. The steps for each platform are below, plus what to do when the result comes out wrong. ## How do you extract text from a screenshot? Open the screenshot in the viewer your device already has, and let its built-in text recognition read the words back. * **iPhone and iPad.** Open it in Photos, touch and hold a word, then tap Copy. * **Android.** Open it in Google Photos, tap the Lens icon, select the words, then tap Copy text. * **Windows.** Snip with Win+Shift+S, click the text actions button, then Copy all text. * **Mac.** Open it in Preview, drag across the words, then press Cmd+C. ## How do you copy text from a screenshot on iPhone or iPad? Apple builds OCR straight into the photo viewer through a feature called [**Live Text**](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/interact-with-content-in-a-photo-or-video-iph37fdd714b/ios). To pull words out of a screenshot: * Open the screenshot in the Photos app. * Touch and hold any word in the image. After a moment the text becomes selectable, with the usual blue handles. * Drag the handles to cover what you want, then tap **Copy**. You can also tap the Live Text icon (the small lines-in-a-box symbol) in the bottom corner to select everything at once. The copied text now sits on your clipboard, ready to paste anywhere with a tap and hold. Live Text also recognises phone numbers, addresses and links inside the image and lets you act on them directly. It works in most languages and needs no separate app or upload. ## How do you get text out of a screenshot on Android? Android handles this through [**Google Lens**](https://support.google.com/photos/answer/7539151), which is built into Google Photos and the Google app. Open your screenshot in Google Photos, tap the **Lens** icon along the bottom, and Lens will scan the image. Tap any detected text to select it, adjust the selection, then choose **Copy text**. From there you can paste it into any app. On newer phones there is an even faster route. **Circle to Search**lets you long-press the home button or navigation bar from almost any screen, including while you are looking at a screenshot, then circle or tap text to capture it without opening a separate app. Both methods run Google’s OCR, so the accuracy is the same. The menus move around between Android versions and phone makers, so if a label is not exactly where described, look for the Lens icon or a “Select text” option nearby. Stop re-extracting the same screenshots. Relic runs [on-device OCR](https://relic.space/technology) on everything you screenshot and copy, so the text inside your images is searchable forever, automatically. No re-snipping, no re-typing. And because it is end-to-end encrypted, those screenshots stay readable only to you. [Download forWindows](https://relic.space/download/windows)[Download formacOS](https://relic.space/download/macos)[Download forLinux](https://relic.space/download/linux)[Download forAndroid](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=relic.space.app&referrer=utm%5Fsource%3Drelic.space%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dwebsite%26utm%5Fcampaign%3Dcontent)[Download foriPhone](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/relic-clipboard-vault/id6800556025) ## How do you copy text from a screenshot on Windows 11? Windows 11 added OCR directly to the **Snipping Tool**. Press **Win+Shift+S** to start a capture, drag over the area you want, and the snip opens in the editor. Click the [**text actions**](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/use-snipping-tool-to-capture-screenshots) button (it looks like a small page with lines) and Snipping Tool highlights every word it found. You can then copy individual lines or hit **Copy all text**. It even offers to redact email addresses and phone numbers before you copy, which is handy. If you extract text constantly, install **Microsoft PowerToys** (a free, official utility) and turn on **Text Extractor**. Press **Win+Shift+T**, drag a box over any text anywhere on screen, and it lands on your clipboard instantly. There is no screenshot to take and no editor to open, which makes it the quickest option on Windows once it is set up. A quick rule of thumb: the cleaner and larger the text in your screenshot, the better OCR performs. If a result comes out garbled, retake the shot at a higher zoom level before reaching for another tool. ## How do you pull text out of a screenshot on a Mac? macOS uses the same **Live Text** engine as the iPhone. Open the screenshot in [**Preview**](https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/interact-with-text-in-a-photo-prvw625a5b2c/mac), or just select the file in Finder and press the spacebar for **Quick Look**. Hover over the words and your cursor turns into a text selection cursor. Drag across the text, then press **Cmd+C** to copy it. You can also right-click a selection for the copy option. As on iPhone, detected phone numbers and addresses become clickable. ## When OCR gets it wrong OCR is excellent on clean, printed text and shakier everywhere else. A few conditions reliably cause misreads, and a few habits fix most of them: * **Tiny or blurry text.** Zoom in before you screenshot so the letters are large and crisp. Low resolution is the single biggest cause of mistakes. * **Low contrast.** Light grey text on a white background, or text over a busy image, confuses the recogniser. Switching a website or app to light mode before capturing can help. * **Decorative or condensed fonts.** Unusual typefaces produce more errors. Always proofread the result, since a mistaken character in a password or code is easy to miss. * **Handwriting.** Printed handwriting sometimes works, cursive rarely does. Treat anything handwritten as a rough draft to correct. This is the same approach that works for any image, not just screenshots. If you are pulling text out of photos and documents too, our guides on [how to copy text from a picture](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-text-from-a-picture) and [how to copy text from a PDF](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-text-from-a-pdf) cover the cases that differ. For the full picture across every kind of file, start with [how to copy text from an image, screenshot or PDF](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-text-from-an-image-or-pdf). ## Keep what you extract Extracting text from a screenshot solves the immediate problem, but the words usually pass through your clipboard once and vanish the next time you copy something. If the thing you screenshotted matters, like a confirmation number, a quote, or a set of instructions, it is worth keeping it somewhere you can search later rather than hunting through your camera roll for the original image. A clipboard that remembers, and that can read the text inside your screenshots automatically, turns a one-off extraction into something you never have to do twice. ## Sources * [Use Live Text to interact with content in a photo or video on iPhone](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/interact-with-content-in-a-photo-or-video-iph37fdd714b/ios), Apple Support * [Get info about your photos and surroundings with Google Lens](https://support.google.com/photos/answer/7539151), Google Photos Help * [Use Snipping Tool to capture screenshots](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/use-snipping-tool-to-capture-screenshots), Microsoft Support * [Interact with text in a photo using Live Text in Preview on Mac](https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/interact-with-text-in-a-photo-prvw625a5b2c/mac), Apple Support JG Written by [Jordan Gibbs](https://relic.space/authors/jordan-gibbs)Founder, Relic Jordan Gibbs is the founder of Relic, an end-to-end encrypted, permanent, searchable memory for everything you copy. He writes widely about AI, agents, and practical tooling on Medium, where he is read by tens of thousands, and builds privacy-first software. Here he covers how everyday tools like the clipboard actually work, and how to use them without handing your data to someone else. [Medium](https://medium.com/@jordan%5Fgibbs)[GitHub](https://github.com/jordan-gibbs)[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan--gibbs/) Part of [Copying text from images and PDFs](https://relic.space/blog/topics/copy-from-images) * [How to copy text from an image, screenshot or PDF· pillar](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-text-from-an-image-or-pdf) * [Snipping Tool for Mac: what to use instead](https://relic.space/blog/snipping-tool-for-mac) * [How to copy text from a PDF](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-text-from-a-pdf) * [How to copy text from a picture](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-text-from-a-picture) * [How to copy text from a scanned or locked PDF](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-text-from-a-scanned-or-locked-pdf) Keep reading [Pillar·8 minHow to copy text from an image, screenshot or PDFText trapped in a picture or a flattened PDF is not really stuck. Optical character recognition can lift it out on any device, including scans that refuse to select.Read ](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-text-from-an-image-or-pdf)[7 minSnipping Tool for Mac: what to use insteadSnipping Tool is Windows only, but every Mac has its own version built in. The shortcuts, the Screenshot app, screen recording, and what each Snipping Tool feature is called on a Mac.Read ](https://relic.space/blog/snipping-tool-for-mac)[8 minHow to copy text from a PDFA normal PDF lets you select and copy like any document. A scanned or locked one needs a different approach. Both kinds handled, on desktop and phone.Read ](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-text-from-a-pdf) ocrhow-toproductivity