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PNG to Text

Turn the words in a PNG screenshot or image into text you can copy, using OCR that runs on your device.

Drag and drop a PNG image here

Accepts PNG · one image · up to 50 MB · English text

Text is recognised on this device. Your image is never uploaded.

English printed text only. Accuracy depends on image quality, and handwriting, tiny or stylised text and low contrast are often misread. Always proofread the result.

How to use PNG to Text

  1. Choose a PNG image, or drag it onto the drop area. The text should be clear and in English.
  2. Press Extract text. The first run downloads the OCR engine (about 8 MB) from this site and caches it.
  3. Wait for recognition to finish. A progress message shows what is happening, and you can cancel.
  4. Proofread the text, check the confidence score, and edit mistakes directly in the box.
  5. Copy the text or download it as a .txt file.

About this tool

PNG screenshots usually contain crisp, high-contrast text, which is where OCR works best. This tool runs the open-source Tesseract engine in your browser and shows the recognised text along with an average confidence score so you know how much to trust it.

Transparent areas are placed on a white background before recognition, so text on a transparent PNG is still read. Results are never guaranteed: stylised fonts, light text on busy backgrounds, tiny type and non-English text are often wrong. If no text can be recognised you are told so, and no empty file is offered.

Formats and browser compatibility

Accepted input: PNG.

Requires WebAssembly and Web Workers, available in all current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari releases. The first run downloads roughly 8 MB of engine and English language data from this site and caches it.

English only. Images above 25 megapixels are rejected to protect memory. Animated PNG is read from its first frame.

Practical uses

  • Copy an error message or code snippet from a screenshot.
  • Extract text from a chat or document screenshot.
  • Make a scanned PNG page searchable by pasting its text.

Tips for better results

  • Screenshot at 100% zoom or larger; very small text is unreliable.
  • Dark mode screenshots can work, but light text on dark may lower accuracy.
  • Crop out toolbars and menus to avoid stray characters.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work on screenshots of code?

Often, but OCR can confuse similar characters such as 0/O and 1/l, and may lose indentation. Check the result before using it.

Is it private?

Yes. Your PNG is processed locally. Nothing is sent to a server.

What does the confidence number mean?

It is the engine's own average certainty across recognised words. A low value means you should proofread carefully.

Are my files uploaded anywhere?

No. Your image is processed in your browser. The OCR engine and English language file are downloaded from Paul Digital itself, never from a third party, and your image is not sent anywhere.

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Privacy

Your image is processed in your browser on your own device and is not uploaded. The OCR engine files are served from Paul Digital rather than a third-party network, and nothing is stored once you close the page.