Did you know you can now extract text from any image using Zamzar? Say goodbye to manual transcribing, and hello to automated text extraction. 😊
Whether you need the contents from a scanned document, text contained in a photo, information from a graphics picture, or wording from a screenshot, a text extraction tool can save you both time and effort. Because, let’s face it, you’ve got better things to do with your time than copying information word by word from an image.
We now offer the ability to convert images to text through our web app, so you can access the tool from anywhere with an internet connection, obtaining your text in just a couple of clicks.
Why would I need to convert image to text?
There are lots of reasons you might want to extract the text from a picture, and being able to use an image-to-text converter for this can save a huge amount of time and effort, preventing the need to manually copy text from the image word by word.
Here are some real-life examples where a picture-to-text converter could be invaluable:
- 🔍 To speed up research: Reading through large amounts of scanned documents to find the crucial information you need will take too long. Extracting the text allows you to perform an automated search for keywords to locate the right information much more quickly.
- 📽️ To convert lecture or conference slides: You’ve taken photos of presentation slides (the speakers always go too quickly for handwritten notes!) and want to be able to convert the photos to text that’s editable so that you can highlight sections and add your own thoughts.
- 📰 To update leaflets or brochures: You need to produce a new version of a print item, but you only have it in image format. If you can convert the image text to text you can edit, it will save you from retyping the content, so you can produce the new version much more quickly.
- 🪄 To translate content in an image: Someone has shared a screenshot or other type of image with you, but the text is in a different language. If you extract the writing in an editable form, you can use an online translation service like Google Translate to convert the text to the language you need.
- ⏱️ To save time when studying: You want to extract text from a scanned book – maybe a textbook, course literature or a scientific journal – so you can easily quote content without retyping, or so you can create your own study notes.
- ⌨️ To make useful information editable: If you want to be able to take the text from an infographic to use elsewhere, or convert a table image to a text table for editing, an image-to-text generator makes this a doddle.
- 📄 To produce new versions of a contract or other legal document: You need an updated copy of some paperwork, but you only have the original as a scanned document with uneditable text. If you can convert the scan to text you can edit, it will save time retyping the whole thing.
- 🎤 To make text readable by screen-reading software: Screen readers used by blind and partially-sighted people can’t access text held in an image. Using a picture-to-text converter produces readable text that the software can process and read aloud to the individual.
- 🗄️ For digital archiving: A digital version of hard copies (e.g. old texts) is needed for archiving. After creating scanned copies of the original documents or books, text extraction allows you to create a searchable form of the text for archiving.
- 📅 To save information for later: You need to copy some information you’ve seen in a social media post – perhaps the address of an event or a schedule of activities – but you can’t highlight and copy the text because it’s held in an image. A picture-to-text tool would get you the information you need in a jiffy.
- 🎧 To convert content to audio: You want to convert text in a scanned document or screenshot to text in a searchable form so that you can convert it to MP3 and listen to it being read to you while you are doing other things – perhaps commuting, exercising or cooking.
How does image-to-text conversion work?
You may have noticed that you can’t highlight or copy text that’s held in an image format, such as in a JPG or PNG image. The text isn’t detectable by screenreaders either, and won’t be picked up if you try to ‘search’ the text for a specific word. This is because the text isn’t held as text data, but rather in an image form where the individual text characters aren’t discernible to software and digital tools.
To extract text from the picture, you need a tool that can detect and interpret characters like letters, numbers and punctuation in the image. This is where OCR technology comes into its own.
What is OCR technology?
OCR stands for optical character recognition. Software that uses OCR technology can look for and detect text characters held in an image and convert them to digital, editable text that is machine-readable.
How does optical character recognition software work?
OCR software will first preprocess the image to differentiate the lighter background from the darker foreground objects (characters) that need to be identified. Preprocessing may also include techniques to clean the file, such as to correctly align a scanned image, or to remove non-character lines and boxes in the image.
After preprocessing, the text recognition stage takes place using one of the following processes:
- Pattern recognition: This method involves isolating the image glyphs (graphical representations of characters) and matching them to stored template glyphs, based on fonts the technology has been trained on. This process is best suited to images with typed text in mainstream fonts.
- Feature extraction: This method breaks glyphs down into components like lines and loops, and features like line direction and line intersections. It then looks for the nearest match with its stored template glyphs.
Once the text recognition stage is complete, the technology may use some post-processing techniques to improve the accuracy of the text extraction and correct possible errors in character interpretation. The final extracted text is then stored as a digital file.
Zamzar’s image-to-text conversion tool uses OCR software to quickly and effectively extract text from your image, so that you have the text you need in a digital, editable form.
How do I convert my image to text with Zamzar?
It takes just a coupe of clicks to convert your picture to text with our handy tool:
1. First, go to https://www.zamzar.com/tools/image-to-text/
2. Drag and drop your image files onto the blue box, or click ‘Choose Files’ to select the files on your computer and then click ‘Open’ to add them.
3. Once the file has converted, click the blue ‘Download’ button to download the file to your computer.
It’s as simple as that!
What image formats can I convert to text?
You can convert the following image formats to text (.txt format) with Zamzar: BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIFF and WEBP.
What devices can I use the image-to-text conversion tool on?
Because the Zamzar image-to-text converter is available online, you can use it on any device with an internet connection, whether that’s a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. There’s no software to download – just upload your files to the secure web tool to get them converted in minutes.
Top tips for converting images to text:
The accuracy of the text in the converted file depends on the clarity of the text in the original image file. Here are some tips to get the best result:
- Ensure the text in the image is large enough to be detected. Very tiny font sizes may be hard to detect accurately.
- Make sure there is sufficient contract between the background and the text.
- Beware of unusual or excessively flowery fonts or difficult-to-read handwriting, which may be hard to detect and interpret correctly.
- Note that the software will try to detect both typed and handwritten text within the image.
- When converting a scanned document, ensure the scan is as clear as possible with crisp contrast and no shadows, and that the scanned image is straight within the document.
- When converting a screenshot, make sure the image is at the original size and not stretched or pixelated.
If you need to quickly extract text from a photo, picture, screenshot or scanned image, try the Zamzar image-to-text converter today!
Happy converting!