Image OCR
Image to Text (OCR)
Pull editable text out of a photo, screenshot or scan. Recognition runs inside your browser — the image itself is never uploaded.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing uploaded
- No sign-up
- Free, no daily limits
- 1Add your file
- 2Choose settings
- 3Download
Drop an image here
Choose a fileJPG, PNG, WebP or GIF — or click to browse · up to 25 MB · nothing is uploaded
Your image stays on this device. Only the Tesseract language model is fetched, from TryDocsy's own /api/tessdata proxy, and it is cached after the first run.
Your file stays on your device: recognition runs locally with Tesseract WebAssembly, so the picture and the text it produces are never uploaded or stored on our servers. TryDocsy records only anonymous usage counts, never your content.
Image to Text Converter - Free Online OCR
Image to Text is a free in-browser OCR tool that extracts editable text from images without uploading files to an external server. Using the Tesseract WebAssembly engine inside your browser, the tool executes an LSTM neural network directly on your device CPU. Drop in a JPG, PNG, WebP, or GIF scan, select your document languages, and export clean text directly to your clipboard or as a .txt file. All image pixels and extracted strings remain confidential inside your browser memory with a 25 MB per-file upload cap.
How to Extract Text from an Image
Select Your Image
Drag and drop or browse for a JPG, PNG, WebP, or GIF up to 25 MB.
Set Language & Mode
Choose your document language and select Sparse, Paragraph, or Single Line layout.
Run Local OCR
The LSTM neural engine runs locally in WebAssembly with real-time progress.
Copy or Download
Inspect output confidence, copy to clipboard, or download as a .txt file.
Tesseract Page Segmentation Modes (PSM)
Optical Character Recognition accuracy depends heavily on choosing the right layout segmentation algorithm. The TryDocsy OCR engine maps human-friendly content presets to standard Tesseract Page Segmentation Modes:
| Preset Name | Tesseract PSM | Segmentation Logic | Best Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto (Default) | PSM 3 | Fully automatic page segmentation without orientation or script detection. | Multi-column articles, general documents, and formatted letters. |
| Dense Paragraph | PSM 6 | Assumes a single uniform block of text with consistent line height. | Book pages, academic papers, and single-column PDF page screenshots. |
| Sparse Layout | PSM 11 | Finds scattered text fragments in arbitrary order without column constraints. | Supermarket receipts, expense invoices, UI menus, and product price tags. |
| Single Text Line | PSM 7 | Treats the entire canvas as a single uninterrupted line of text. | License plates, serial number stickers, barcodes captions, and coupon codes. |
Factors Affecting In-Browser OCR Accuracy
Tesseract LSTM weights are trained on digital typography and machine-printed typefaces. Joined cursive handwriting, signatures, and quick pen notes trigger severe character substitution errors. For exam forms requiring signature validation, pair your images using our Photo and Signature Joiner rather than attempting text extraction on pen strokes.
Characters smaller than 20 pixels in height frequently fail recognition. Our built-in preprocessor applies grayscale binarization, dynamic thresholding, and bicubic canvas upscaling. If your source image is excessively large, shrink dimensions with our Image Compressor to prevent browser tab memory exhaustion.
Selecting multiple languages loads separate traineddata dictionaries into WebAssembly. While dual-language combinations like English and Hindi work reliably on bilingual signs, adding 4 or more unrelated languages dilutes character probability models and reduces recognition speed.
Language models range from 2 MB to 15 MB. When you select a language, TryDocsy downloads the model once from our tessdata proxy and stores it in your browser IndexedDB storage. Subsequent recognition runs load instantly from local disk with zero network delay.
Why Use TryDocsy for Image OCR?
Zero Server Uploads
Recognition executes in client WebAssembly. Your photos and text never leave your machine.
50+ Recognition Languages
Select English, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and more with simultaneous multi-language support.
Custom Layout Presets
Fine-tune extraction with Dense Paragraph, Sparse Receipt, or Single Line segmentation modes.
Automated Preprocessing
Grayscale normalization, contrast stretching, and resolution upscaling enhance degraded photos.
Instant Clipboard & File Export
Copy words immediately with confidence ratings or download clean UTF-8 .txt files.
No Accounts or Daily Quotas
Free client-side tool with no registration, no token consumption, and no watermark stamps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my image uploaded to an external server?
No. Your picture never leaves your browser. Recognition runs on your local CPU through the Tesseract WebAssembly engine. The required language data files are loaded via TryDocsy's cached proxy and stored in your browser's IndexedDB so subsequent scans work even without an internet connection. TryDocsy records anonymous tool usage counts, but your source images, rendered pixels, and extracted text never touch our servers.
Which image formats can I convert to text?
The tool accepts JPG, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and GIF files up to 25 MB. If your document is saved as a HEIC photo from an iPhone, or a multi-page TIFF scan, convert it to JPG or PNG first using our free browser-based converters before running recognition.
Which languages and scripts are supported?
The selector includes more than 50 languages, including English, Hindi, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Tamil. You can select multiple languages at once for bilingual invoices or notices. We recommend choosing only the languages actually present in the photo, as loading unnecessary models slows down processing and increases recognition confusion.
Can this OCR tool read handwritten notes and cursive?
Tesseract LSTM neural models are trained primarily on printed typography and computer fonts. As a result, casual handwriting, cursive, and medical scripts produce high error rates. Neat block handwriting occasionally succeeds, but joined script will fail. High-resolution photos of printed books, receipts, and signs routinely reach 95% or higher character accuracy.
How can I improve accuracy on faint or low-contrast photos?
Use the highest resolution available, crop away non-text borders, and ensure text is aligned horizontally. Keep the Enhance Image toggle activated: it converts the picture to grayscale, normalizes contrast, and applies bicubic upscaling. For scattered receipts or multi-column layouts, change the Content Type preset to Sparse. For standard book pages, select Dense Paragraph.
What is the file size limit for OCR processing?
You can process one image at a time up to 25 MB. There are no daily quotas, paywalls, or watermarks. Because recognition relies on your client device memory rather than cloud server queues, processing speed depends on your CPU speed and image dimensions.
What export options are available for extracted text?
You can copy the raw text to your clipboard with one click or download it as a plain UTF-8 .txt document. Because text generation stays entirely in client-side memory, you can safely scan confidential ID cards, legal agreements, tax forms, and utility bills.