Despite becoming modern day by day, Humans still highly depend on papers and cannot deny their importance.

According to journalism, in 2018, the estimated newspaper circulation for a weekday was 28.6 million in the US only.

These statistics are only for newspapers. There are many other types of papers such as magazines, brochures, books etc. This only proves the importance of printed papers.

Now, why do we need to extract text from images? It is because print and digital media are interconnected. Sometimes people use some parts of printed media in online blogs and articles and vice versa.

This is why we needed a technology that could convert images to editable text. So, what technology is used for this purpose?

OCR technology:

OCR is an initialism for Optical character recognition. It is the advanced technology used to convert the written text of images to digitized computer text.

This technology is used in many systems that convert images to text. Below are some techniques to extract text from images on a mobile phone.

Using apps:

Many modern androids support apps that can convert images to text. Most of these apps are free. One such app is “Image to text” by prepostseo. It is up to 97 percent accurate.

This app can be downloaded from the Play Store for free. There are many reasons why this app is recommended.

• It is free to download and you can use it right after downloading, no registration required.
• Its design is simple, unique, and sleek. Easily understandable.
• Images from camera and gallery options.
• Text-to-Speech option. Adjustable speed and pitch.
• One-click clears the text box.
• A history of previous conversions.
• Users can copy from the clipboard or share to different apps.

How to?

This app is very simple to use.

1. Download and Open the app.
2. Click the image of the document or import from the gallery.
3. Click on the “Crop” option that appears on the top right corner of the image.
4. The text will appear in the text box from where it can be copied or shared.

Imagestotext.io

What makes Imagestotext.io shine is its simplicity and user-friendliness. The image-to-text converter tool doesn’t require its users to delve deep into technical nuances to extract text. 

In fact, it is designed to convert images, be it Google images, scanned documents, pdf files, or screenshots, into editable text swiftly and effortlessly.

Uploading is a breeze. Users can either drag and drop their images into the designated box or use the upload feature. 

Following this, a single click on the “GET TEXT” button will employ the platform’s advanced AI OCR models to recognize and extract the text from the images. The AI is adept at not only detecting the text but also determining its language. 

Once done, the extracted text is presented in an editable format, which users can then save as per their requirements. 

Catering to a global audience, it’s a multilingual OCR tool, capable of extracting and translating text in various languages, from English and Spanish to Hindi and Urdu. 

Furthermore, its versatility extends to processing all image formats – JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, and more.

Online Converters:

There is another option for those who want to extract text from images, and that is online tools.

One can find hundreds of such tools but obviously, no one has time to analyze each and every one.

Editpad offers a similar tool that has been proven trustworthy many times. It is a simple, free online tool with no complexity, unlike other tools.

It has a tendency to assume blurred or unrecognizable letters.

It is recommended because:

• Free and very accurate.
• Advanced URL option.
• Text can be copied
• Secure to use.

How to?

You can convert an image to text in three simple steps through this tool.

1. Upload image or paste URL.
2. Click on the “Extract text” option.
3. Text will be extracted.

Chrome Extension:

Text can also be extracted from images through online chrome extensions. There are extensions available for this purpose. One of the famous extensions is Project Naptha.

This extension automatically detects the text from images and the user can extract the required portion by highlighting and copying it. It can identify different fonts.

However, the pasted text appears in the default font and size.

Google lens:

Advanced and new android smartphones are coming with in-built OCR software supported by Google.

This software is called “Google Lens”. It usually works after applying pressure on the home button for 1 or 2 seconds.

You can also ask Google assistant to open the lens. This lens doesn’t only identify text but also furniture, plants, food, and other stuff.

People use it to search for similar objects online, the name of the object, or for simple web search.

This lens highlights all the recognized text. Users can select a word, line, paragraph, or the whole thing to copy. It also allows listening for pronunciation and web search for that word.

On allowing, google assistant can also read the highlighted text. You can also translate.

Since it is powered by Google, it is one of the most accurate converters.

How to?

1. Open lens directly or command Google assistant to do that.
2. Place the camera in front of the document.
3. Lens will instantly highlight text, but if not, then click on the text in the picture.
4. Click capture.
5. Choose “select text”
6. Copy it to the clipboard.

Google drive:

Google Drive can also be used for text extraction. This feature has been proved very convenient for those people who already used Google Drive for documentation.

Now users can simply upload pictures and extract text from them. It also tries to copy the font style and is quite accurate in doing so.

How to?

1. Open Google drive.
2. Upload the Image
3. Click on the open with option and choose Google Docs.
4. The image will appear with the text written below.

Conclusion:

Long gone are the days when the text was typed for editing from a paper. Now, the world has become fast and everyone uses OCR technology to copy text.

Since it is not an actual human but only a computer software, it can make mistakes. Sometimes it converts the words wrongly which requires correction afterward.

To make the most out of OCR, make sure the image is clear and all the text is readable. You can use any of the mentioned techniques according to your requirements.