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Photo to Text

Scan Text from a Photo on iPhone

Convert a saved photo or screenshot into editable text on iPhone. ScanLens runs OCR on-device in 14 languages, lets you review and copy the result, and keeps it with the source image in your document library.

On-device Apple Vision 14 languages Library integration No upload
Useful for: screenshots, photographed letters, book pages, signs, menus, and mixed-language documents that you want to keep searchable after copying the text.
Download on the App Store

How do you scan text from a photo on iPhone — and is Live Text enough?

To scan text from a photo on iPhone, open the image in Live Text or an OCR app, select the recognized words, then copy or save them. Live Text is already built into iOS and is usually the quickest option for a phone number, address, or short paragraph.

ScanLens is designed for photos that belong in a document workflow. You can select the OCR language, review the result, keep it with the source image, and find it later beside your scans and PDFs. If you need another language, check the recognized text first and then use the scanned-document translation workflow.

Live Text vs ScanLens for image-to-text conversion

Use Live Text for a quick copy. Open the camera or photo, select the text, and paste it where you need it. There is no reason to add another app when that completes the job.

Use ScanLens when the photo is part of a larger document set. A photographed letter can stay with related PDFs; a bilingual page can be recognized with the languages you select; a screenshot can be stored with the extracted text instead of disappearing into the camera roll.

How do you turn a photo into editable text?

An image-to-text converter uses OCR to turn words in a photo or screenshot into editable text. In ScanLens, the recognition step runs on the iPhone, after which you can review, copy, share, or save the result beside the source image.

On-device OCR via Apple's Vision framework

ScanLens uses Apple's Vision framework and lets you choose from 14 supported OCR languages. Recognition runs on the iPhone, so no upload is required to extract the text.

Import any photo from library, camera roll, or Files

Choose an image from Photos, import one through Files, or take a new photo in ScanLens. Screenshots work as well, including images from apps where the visible text cannot be selected.

Recognized text is editable, copyable, exportable

After OCR, recognized text can be copied or shared through the iOS share sheet. ScanLens exports document files as PDF, JPG, or PNG; move copied text into Notes, Pages, Word, or another editor if you need a separate text document.

Saved alongside the photo in your ScanLens library

Save the recognized text with its source image in ScanLens. It remains searchable in the document library alongside related scans and PDFs.

OCR Flow

How to scan text from a photo in ScanLens, step by step

Import the image, choose the language, review the OCR result, then copy or save the text.

Step Action Tips
1 Open ScanLens From the home screen or your iOS dock — no sign-in
2 Import the photo Photos picker, Files browser, camera roll, or fresh capture inside the app
3 Pick the language(s) For monolingual photos, default is fine; for mixed scripts, pick two or three
4 Wait for OCR (usually 1–2 seconds) Recognized text appears as an editable overlay alongside the photo
5 Select, copy, or share Long-press to select; standard iOS share sheet for Mail, Messages, Notes
6 Save the photo + text to your library Stored as a single document, searchable next to your other scans

Copy text from a screenshot

A screenshot is just an image in your camera roll, so the same conversion applies: import it, run recognition, and copy the text out. This is the quickest route for an address inside a chat screenshot, a confirmation number in a receipt image, or a paragraph from a page that would not let you select text in the first place.

Screenshots usually recognize better than photographed paper — the text is already sharp, evenly lit, and perfectly square, with none of the perspective distortion a camera introduces. Small interface type is the one weak point: zoom in before you take the screenshot when the text is tiny.

When Live Text does not work

Apple's Live Text handles a lot of this without any app at all, and when it works, it is the fastest option available. It goes quiet in a few situations, and knowing which one you are in saves time:

If Live Text gives you what you need, use it. The reason to reach for an app is control: which language, what happens to the geometry first, and where the recognized text ends up afterwards.

When an image-to-text converter is useful

Foreign-language signs and menus while traveling

A menu in a language you don't read, or a sign at a train station. Snap the photo, run OCR, paste into a translator. Live Text handles a lot of this already; ScanLens lets you pick the language yourself — Cyrillic timetables, Japanese hand-lettering, Arabic signage — and keeps the photo and the recognized text together for after the trip.

Pages of a printed book or letter you photographed

A page in a library book you didn't have time to scan properly. A letter you photographed before mailing the original. A page of a friend's lecture notes. ScanLens turns the photo into text you can quote, search, or paste into a writing app.

Whiteboard photo from a meeting

The post-standup whiteboard with action items scrawled across it. Document capture can correct the board's perspective, and the Whiteboard image filter can improve contrast before OCR. Handwriting results still vary with the writing, language, lighting, and camera angle.

Recipe card from a cookbook

You don't want to scan-and-crop a whole cookbook for one recipe. Photograph the page, OCR the ingredients and method, save to your recipes folder. The text lives next to the photo so the visual layout is still there if a step is ambiguous.

Handwritten note you took a photo of

A sticky note someone left on your desk. A whiteboard sketch a colleague sent. A page of your own meeting notes. Apple Vision's handwriting recognition covers several Latin-script languages — for a dedicated walkthrough, see scan handwriting to text.

Frequently Asked Questions

Doesn't Live Text already do this?

Use Live Text when you only need to copy a phone number, address, or short line from a photo. Use ScanLens when you want to review the OCR result, choose the recognition language, or save the text with the source image in your document library.

Which languages are supported?

ScanLens uses Apple's Vision framework for OCR and recognizes text in 14 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. Pick the language that matches the photo so the recognizer loads the right model, and check important text against the image.

Does the photo upload anywhere?

No upload is required for recognition: OCR runs on the iPhone through Apple's Vision framework. Document files are uploaded only when you enable backup or choose a cloud destination; limited account, entitlement, analytics, diagnostics, attribution, and document metadata are handled as described in the Privacy Policy.

What if the photo has multiple languages mixed?

Use the language picker to set the language that covers most of the text in the photo. On a Japanese-English menu or a Russian-English instruction sheet, pick the script you actually need out of the image — telling the recognizer which language to expect is what stops it guessing wrong, and it is a large part of why people reach for dedicated OCR instead of Live Text.

Can I scan text from a screenshot?

Yes — a screenshot is just a photo as far as ScanLens is concerned. Import from the camera roll like any other image. Useful for grabbing text out of an app that won't let you select directly, captioning a video frame, or pulling addresses out of a chat screenshot.

Will the recognized text reproduce formatting?

No. OCR output is plain text — words and line breaks, without bold, italics, font sizes, colors, columns, or tables. Text reflows in whatever app you paste into. If you need a styled copy, the workflow is OCR for the words plus a screenshot or PDF for the visual layout, kept side by side.

Is there a free image-to-text tool with no sign-up?

No sign-up, yes — ScanLens asks for no account and no email address at any point, and nothing here runs on someone else's server. Free, partly: recognition happens on every scan in the background and searching inside your own documents costs nothing, while the screen where you read, copy and export the recognized text belongs to the paid feature set. The pricing page has the current plans.

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Photo to Text

Ready to pull text out of any photo on your iPhone?

Run Apple Vision OCR on-device in 14 languages, review the result, then copy or save it beside the source image. ScanLens is a free app, and no account or upload is required for recognition.

Download on the App Store