ExtractFoxExtract text from any image
Drop a photo, screenshot, or scan — get clean text back. Handwriting, glare, rotation, and messy layouts all work.
What should we pull from this image?
Or pick specific fields
Or describe it yourself
Why this matters
Free OCR tools (Tesseract, browser OCR widgets) work for clean printed text and fail on everything else: handwriting, photos with glare, rotated documents, multi-column layouts, mixed fonts, non-English text. A modern vision LLM reads images the way a person does — using context to disambiguate ambiguous letters and preserve layout. The result is text you can actually use, not text you have to clean up. A field inspector photographs a rusted serial-number plate at an angle with afternoon glare — Tesseract returns 'S/N: l2847O3' and the warranty lookup fails. Restaurant menus photographed through glass, transit signs in mixed scripts, and whiteboard brainstorms all need context-aware reading, not character-by-character guessing.
How it works
- Step 1Upload the image
PNG, JPG, WEBP, or HEIC. Phone photos, screenshots, and scans all work. Rotated and angled photos handled automatically.
- Step 2Pick what to extract
All text (default), only numbers, only headlines, handwriting only, or describe the exact slice you need.
- Step 3Copy or download
Plain text, .txt, or structured JSON if you asked for fielded extraction.
Common use cases
Sample output
Example: handwritten note photographed on a desk
| text | Grocery list — Tuesday • Eggs (12) • Sourdough loaf • Olive oil • Tomatoes — 6 • Coffee beans (250g) • Parmesan Don't forget: pick up dry cleaning |
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from free OCR tools like Tesseract?+
Tesseract was built in 2006 for clean printed text and falls apart on photos, handwriting, mixed layouts, and most non-Latin scripts. ExtractFox's vision model reads images in context, so handwriting, glare, rotation, and unusual fonts all work. On real-world images, accuracy is typically 30–50 percentage points higher than Tesseract.
Does it read handwriting from images?+
Yes — clearly written handwriting (printed or cursive) in Latin scripts extracts at over 90% accuracy. For dedicated handwriting workflows, see the handwriting extractor.
What languages are supported?+
Over 100 languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Hindi. Mixed-language images work too.
Can I extract numbers only, or text from a specific region?+
Yes. Use the Numbers only mode for digits, or describe the slice in the description box — e.g. 'just the text on the receipt total line'. The model returns only what you ask for.
How does this compare to Adobe Acrobat OCR or Google Drive OCR?+
Acrobat and Drive OCR are template-free and decent on clean scans. They struggle on photos and handwriting. ExtractFox is built specifically for messy, real-world images — phone photos with glare, multi-language signs, handwritten notes — and tends to win on those by a wide margin.
Is it really worth paying for image-to-text?+
If your input is a screenshot of clean printed text, a free tool is fine. If your input is a phone photo, a handwritten note, a multi-column layout, a foreign-language sign, or anything OCR has historically struggled with, you save real time by using a tool that gets it right the first time.
What image formats are supported?+
PNG, JPG, WEBP, and HEIC. Up to 20 MB per image. For multi-page scans, save as PDF and use the PDF-to-text extractor.
Can it read text from a photo taken at an angle or with perspective distortion?+
Yes. Moderate rotation and perspective are corrected automatically — the model reads the text in context rather than relying on a perfectly flat scan.
Does it work on images with text overlaid on busy backgrounds?+
Mostly. Signs, menus, and labels on textured or photographic backgrounds work well. Very low contrast (white text on light gray) may need a sharper photo.
I need structured data from an image, not plain text — what should I use?+
Use the image data extractor instead. It returns named fields and tables — receipt line items, ID numbers, chart values — as Excel or JSON. This page is for plain text output when you want to copy, search, or translate the words on the image.