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How to Extract Text from an Image (Free OCR, Thai too)

3 min readUpdated 5 October 2026

To extract text from an image, open OCR, choose your document's language and drop in the photo, screenshot or scanned PDF. The text appears beside the image in a few seconds; press Copy all to paste it anywhere.

It's free and needs no account. The OCR engine and language data download to your browser once, then every image is read on your own device — so receipts, ID cards and work documents are never uploaded. It reads Thai as well as English.

Do it now with OCRFree, no sign-up, works on any device.

Step by step

  1. 1Choose the languagePick your document's language from the menu: Thai + English (the default), English, Thai, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean or Vietnamese — each Asian option also reads English.
  2. 2Add the imageDrop photos, screenshots or scanned PDFs onto the page, or click to choose them. To grab a screenshot straight from the clipboard, press Ctrl/⌘ + V.
  3. 3Let it readThe first run downloads the OCR engine and language data once. After that, each image or PDF page is read in turn, with a progress bar and a Stop button.
  4. 4Check the resultSwitch between Per page and Combined text. Turn on Low confidence to mark words worth double-checking against the image.
  5. 5Copy or savePress Copy all to put the text on your clipboard, or use the download button to save it as a .txt file.

Getting accurate OCR results

OCR is only as good as the picture it reads. A few habits make a big difference:

  • Pick only the languages that are actually in the document — fewer is faster and more accurate.
  • Photograph pages flat, straight on and in good light, without shadows across the text.
  • Crop away clutter around the text if you can; screenshots usually give the cleanest results.
  • Printed text works best. Handwriting is generally not read reliably by OCR.

Tip: Small images are enlarged automatically before reading, so a phone screenshot is fine — but a blurry photo stays blurry. Retake it rather than fight the result.

OCR for Thai text

Thai has no spaces between words, and OCR engines often insert stray spaces between Thai characters. Clean Thai spacing is on by default and removes them, so the text you copy reads naturally.

If you change the language after reading, the tool offers to re-read the files with the new setting, so you don't have to add them again.

Copying text from a screenshot or PDF

For a screenshot, take it as usual and press Ctrl/⌘ + V on the OCR page — no need to save the file first. On a phone, save the screenshot to your photos and tap the drop area to choose it.

For scanned PDFs, drop the whole file in and every page is read (up to the first 200 pages). If your PDF was created digitally rather than scanned, its text is already inside — PDF to Text pulls it out instantly and more accurately.

What to do with the text

Once the text is out of the image, these tools help you clean it up and use it:

  • Text Cleaner — remove extra line breaks and spaces from scanned text.
  • Word Counter — count words and characters for forms and posts.
  • Read Aloud — listen to the text instead of reading it.

Questions people ask

Can OCR read Thai?
Yes. Thai + English is the default, and Clean Thai spacing removes the stray spaces OCR tends to add between Thai characters.
Is my image uploaded?
No. The OCR engine and language data are downloaded to your browser once, and your images are read entirely on your device.
Can it read handwriting?
Not reliably. It's designed for printed text such as documents, receipts, signs and screenshots.
Why does the text have mistakes?
Usually because the photo is blurry, tilted, shadowed or very small, or the wrong language is selected. Retake the photo straight on in good light, and turn on Low confidence to spot words to check.
Do it now with OCRFree, no sign-up, works on any device.

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