How to extract text from images in a web browser

There are many uses for extracting text from images.Text extraction is most useful for research purposes when the image contains some text-based information.Extracting the required text from an image is faster and more convenient than recording it manually in a word processor.

Many users use Windows or Mac OCR (optical character recognition) desktop software to extract text from images.However, you can also use extensions and web apps in your web browser to extract text from online images.This is how you can extract text from an image in a web browser.

How to extract text from images using Copyfish extension

Copyfish is one of the best-rated OCR browser extensions for extracting text from images.The extension allows you to extract text by dragging a rectangle around an image displayed in the browser.You can then copy the text to the clipboard for pasting into a word processor.

You can add Copyfish to Google Chrome, Opera, Edge, Firefox, and other Chromium browsers.Click the page link at the bottom of this section to pop up the browser's Copyfish download page.Then click the "Get" or "Add to install" button on the extension page.

After installing the plug-in, you should see the Copyfish icon in your browser's URL toolbar or extensions menu.If you don't see the icon on the taskbar, click the "Extend" button.Clicking on Copyfish will activate the extended text extraction tool.

First, you need to find an image to try out the extension.Open Google search and enter book text keywords.Click the Chrome browser's "Images" tab to see thumbnails.

To extract text, right-click on the thumbnail and select Open image in new tab; then click the Copyfish extension button.Hold down the left mouse button and drag the red rectangle around the image in the tab.

The Copyfish OCR results will now appear, showing the extracted text.You can click the "Open in tab" button at the top of the box to view the extracted text in a full browser tab.Click "Copy to Clipboard" to copy the text result.Then open the Notepad application or word processor in Windows, press Ctrl + V to paste the extracted text, and save it.

Note that you can also use Copyfish to extract text from videos.Go to YouTube and play the video.Pause the video when it shows the text you want to extract.Then activate the Copyfish extension to use it.

To adjust the extension settings, click the gear button on the Copyfish tab.You can select other OCR engine options on the Copyfish tab.Click the Text Box Font Size drop-down menu and select a larger or smaller text size value.Copyfish can better capture text in tables when the "Use Table OCR" option is turned on.

Download: Copyfish for Google Chrome | Edge | Opera | Firefox (free)

How to extract text from images using IC2R web app

IC2R is a web application that extracts text from images in any browser.The great thing about this app is that it also lets you upload image files from your computer.It also contains a PDF OCR for extracting text from Portable Document Format files.You can use IC2R to extract text from images on a web page:

1. First, open a web page with an image from which you want to extract text.

2. Right-click on the image and select Copy Image Address or a similar right-click menu option.

3. Open in a browser IC2R web application.

4. Select the URL radio button.

5. Press Ctrl + V to paste the copied image URL into the text box.

6. Click the Extract Text button.

7. Press "Download" and select "Text" to save the TXT document.Alternatively you can select the DOC, PDF and HTML options on the menu.

8. Open the folder where your browser usually downloads files and find the extracted text document.

If you want to extract text from an image saved on your computer, click the File option; press the Select Image button, select the file from which you want to extract text, and click Open.Click "Extract" to view the text extracted from the selected image file.

How to extract image text from Google Photos

The Google Photos web app incorporates Google Lens image recognition technology, which lets you extract text from saved images.

You need to enable the Lens tag to use the feature in the Google Chrome Windows desktop browser.This is how to extract text from images using Google Lens in the Chrome browser:

1. Enter chrome://flags/ in the web address bar of the Chrome browser and press Enter.

2. Enter a keyword in the search mark box to enable the lens.

3. Click the Enable Lens feature drop-down menu in the Chrome browser and select Enabled.

4. Select the Restart option to restart Chrome browser.

5. Open the Google Photos page in Chrome browser.

6. Click the Go to Google Photos button.

7. Double-click an image saved in cloud storage to view it in a separate page tab.

8. You should now see a "Copy text from image" button next to the other image options.Click "Copy text from image" to view the extracted text in the sidebar.

9. Click the "Copy Text" button.

10. Bring up a word processing program where you can paste the copied text and press Ctrl + V.

11. Then save the document with the pasted text.

You can also choose more specific text to extract from the image.To do this, hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor over the sidebar text to select it.Then copy the selected text and paste it into a word processor.

How to extract text from an image using Brave's "Copy Text from Image" option

Brave is one of the few web browsers with a built-in option to copy text from images.You can also enable Google Lens in Brave, much like the Chrome browser.If you don't have Brave yet, click the download link on that browser page below.Then select the Download Brave option and double-click the BraveBrowserSetup-QSF150.exe file to install the browser.

After installing Brave, open a webpage with pictures.Then right click on the picture and select copy text from picture.A box appears displaying the extracted text and is automatically copied to the clipboard.Copy and paste the text into a word processor, then save the document.

Download: Brave (free)

Extract text from images while browsing the web

Now you can use Copyfish, IC2R or Google Lens to extract text from images while browsing the web.These tools are invaluable for online research. Copyfish, IC2R, and Google Lens work well and are good alternatives to the best free OCR apps for converting images to text.