In recent years, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) copy text apps have gained popularity due to the convenience they offer when browsing online. OCR technology allows you to extract text from images or videos, making it easier to copy and utilize content.
While Android and iOS have long supported OCR functionality, with Android officially incorporating it into the OS and iOS offering it since iOS 15, Windows has not had a native OCR feature for extracting text from images or videos—until now.
Microsoft’s PowerToys utility tool has introduced an OCR feature that allows you to easily extract text from images or videos. PowerToys enhances your Windows experience with various productivity tools like a color picker, image resizer, file explorer add-ons, and more.
The addition of OCR to PowerToys makes it incredibly easy to copy text from images or videos, even from platforms like YouTube.
Here’s how to extract text from images on Windows 11 using PowerToys:
Step 1: Install PowerToys
First of all, you need to install PowerToys on your Windows 11 machine. Installing PowerToys is easy and doesn’t require you to download it from any third-party website.
Step 1. Open the Start menu by tapping on the Windows button or by directly pressing the Windows key on your keyboard.
Step 2. Search for Command Prompt in the search section and then click on the app icon to open a Command Prompt window.
Step 3. Once you open Command Prompt, type the following command or directly paste the command in the Command Prompt:
winget install --id Microsoft.PowerToysStep 4. The app will automatically start installing once you paste or enter the aforementioned command.
Simply press Y and Enter in between in case it tells you to continue in the process.
Step 2: Enable the Text Extractor (Copy Text) feature
Once you install PowerToys, you need to enable the text extractor feature.
Step 1. Open the Start menu.
Step 2. Now, search for PowerToys and open the app.
Step 3. After PowerToys opens, tap on the Text Extractor option at the left sidebar.
Step 4. Lastly, enable the text extraction feature by tapping the toggle next to the ‘Enable Text Extractor’ option.
Step 3: Try extracting the text (copy text from Image)
After following the two major steps above, you can finally try and use the feature.
Step 1. Open any image or video. It could also be from a YouTube video or any video online. In fact, you can copy any text that’s clear and visible on your screen.
Step 2. Now, to extract text, press Windows + Shift + T.
Step 3. Highlight the area of the text that you want to extract or copy. Once you do, the text will be recognized and copied. Paste it anywhere.
That’s how easily you can Copy text from images or videos on Windows 11.
