Optical Character Recognition

These optical character recognition tools may assist users to glean text from inaccessible documents and websites. None of the tools on this page are meant as a replacement for accessible document creation. Content creators are always responsible for creating accessible material.

On this page:

• Screenshot Readers
• Optical Character Recognition

Screenshot Readers

Screenshot Readers allow help users capture a selection of their screen and extract text from improperly formatted PDFs, images, or poorly coded websites.

PowerToys

Microsoft PowerToys is an addon for Windows that includes a number of utilities. Text Extractor allows users to capture a portion of their screen and extract text from images or videos.

1. With PowerToys running, press Windows key Shift t to activate Text Extractor.
2. Click and drag over content.
3. Text is extracted and saved to your clipboard.
4. Open Notepad or Word and paste extracted text.

iOS/iPadOS/macOS

On iOS/iPadOS 15+ and macOS 12+ (running on Apple processors) users can extract text from images via Live Text. Open an image in Preview and the mouse pointer will turn to a text cursor over selectable text. Click and drag then copy text from images.

On macOS, if a user opens an inaccessible document or image of text in Preview, Photos, or Safari, they can use Live Text to copy the text to a document. This also works for a paused video.

macOS guide to Live Text.

iOS Live Text guide.

Microsoft Lens

Microsoft Lens for iOS and Android supports several OCR options. Using Document, users can scan a document and have it sent to various Microsoft platforms such as Word or OneDrive. Swiping to Actions, users can extract text in real time to be read aloud or copied. Read more about Microsoft Lens.

OneNote

Users can upload images or documents to OneNote, right click on the item and select Copy Text from Picture then paste the text in OneNote or other document.

Read more about OneNote OCR.

Google Lens

Google Lens, like Microsoft Lens or iOS Live Text, can allow a smartphone to extract text from an image. Download Google Lens for Android. Google Lens within Google Chrome can also do that on a desktop.

1. In Chrome navigate to an image and right click on the image.
2. Select Search Image with Google.
3. Highlight any text desire or use the Select all text button.
4. Use the Copy text or Listen buttons.
   

How Google Lens Works

ShareX

ShareX is a screenshot application that includes OCR. Users can use ShareX to capture their screen (or a portion of) and then copy the extracted text to another program to be read aloud.

1. Download ShareX.
2. Open ShareX.
3. Select Capture.
4. Select Text Capture (OCR)…
5. Text will appear in new window to be copied or (by default) opened in Google Translate to be read aloud (note: only works for short blocks of text).

ShareX OCR Help Document

Snagit

Snagit is a screen capture and recoding software available for macOS and Windows. Snagit is paid software, although Langara does have some licenses. To do extract text from an image:

1. Open an image in the Snagit Editor (either via screenshot or existing file).
2. Right-click and select Grab Text…
3. The Grab Text Results window appears with options to edit, copy parts of the text, or Copy All.

To select specific text:

1. Open an image in the Snagit Editor (either via screenshot or existing file).
2. Click the Selection tool.
3. Click and drag around desired text.
4. Right-click and choose Grab Text.
5. The Grab Text Results window appears allowing you to edit and copy the text.

Email edtech@langara.ca if you would like a Snagit license.

Grab & Edit Text with Snagit.

Firefox (macOS)

1. Right-click on an image.
2. Select Copy Text from Image.
3. A popup containing the image’s text appears.
   1. The complete text is automatically copied to the clipboard.
   2. Or, users can select just part of the text and copy with CMD C.
4. Click Close or press Escape.

Copy text from images on Firefox for MacOS.

Equatio

EquatIO’s Screenshot Reader can be used to capture images of math or other inaccessible math content.

To use EquatIO’s Screenshot reader:

1. Open Equatio.
2. Select Screenshot Reader on the toolbar.
3. Draw a box around inaccessible math. The content will be read aloud and can be exported to various formats (MathML, LaTeX, accessible image) or opened in the equation editor for further revision or completion.
   

Equatio Screenshot Reader Introduction

Note: Many screenshot readers limit the number of words or crash when attempting to extract large text selections. Screenshot readers are not meant for full document remediation.

Optical Character Recognition

TextAid

Users can upload an image of text that is converted to machine-readable text and saved to the TextAid library.

1. Navigate to TextAid web application and sign in with Office 365.
2. Select Image to Text in the sidebar.
   
3. Choose file, set options, and click Start.
4. Wait for file to process and then select Go to your library to access your file.
5. Once the processing is completed, you can use the reading options and tools discussed above.
6. Click Listen button to read the whole document.
7. Select Text Mode to see a plain text conversion and use additional tools such as select to listen.

TextAid Image to Text Tool.

Google Drive

Google Drive can be used to OCR documents and images. To do so:

1. Upload a file or image to Google Drive
2. Right-click on the file and select Open with > Google Docs. A new Google Docs document will open with the file automatically OCRed.

More information on Google Drive OCR.

Acrobat

Adobe Reader does not support OCR. Only Acrobat Pro has this feature.

1. Open a PDF file containing a scanned image in Acrobat for Mac or PC.
2. Open Scan & OCR tool.
3. Under Recognize Text:
   1. Choose In This File.
   2. Click Recognize Text.
4. This will not make a document entirely accessible.
   1. Making the text machine readable is the bare minimum first step to making a PDF accessible.

How to use Acrobat OCR for PDFs in 4 easy steps.

Langara has an OCR scanner and Kurzweil software available. Contact assistivetech@langara.ca for more information.