Online Tool Store
Screenshot to Clean Text
Paste a screenshot and get clean text: in-browser OCR, then wrapped lines joined, split words rejoined and stray symbols removed. Nothing is uploaded.
This works right here on your device — nothing gets sent out.
Paste a screenshot with Ctrl + V, drop an image here, or choose a file
PNG, JPG, WebP or BMP with printed English text. OCR runs on your device — the image is never uploaded.
55 words · 1 wrapped line joined · 2 noise lines removed
Example shown — paste your own screenshot to replace it.
How Screenshot to Clean Text works
- Paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V / Cmd+V (or the Paste screenshot button), drop an image, or choose a file.
- The OCR engine reads the image on your device and fills the raw OCR text panel — the first run downloads the engine once.
- The cleanup rules turn that raw output into clean text; toggle any rule, or edit the raw text, and the result updates live.
- Copy the clean text or download it as a UTF-8 .txt file.
The cleanup method
Raw OCR output mirrors the layout of the image, not the structure of the writing: every visual line ends in a line break, words broken by a hyphen at the edge of a column stay broken, and icons or divider lines become stray characters such as "|" or "»". The rules undo that in a fixed order. Spacing is tidied line by line first, then any line made only of symbols becomes a blank line, so it acts as a paragraph break instead of gluing two paragraphs together.
normalize line endings → fix ligatures → tidy spacing → blank out symbol-only lines → rejoin "word-⏎word" → join lines within each paragraph
Example: "Early num-⏎bers look strong" becomes "Early numbers look strong", while a line starting with "•" or "2." keeps its own line so lists survive.
FAQ
How do I copy text from a screenshot?
Take the screenshot as usual (Win+Shift+S on Windows, Cmd+Shift+Ctrl+4 on Mac to copy it straight to the clipboard), then press Ctrl+V or Cmd+V on this page. The text is recognized in your browser and the clean copy appears on the right, ready to copy or download.
Why does text from a screenshot have line breaks in the middle of sentences?
OCR returns one line of text for every line it sees in the image, so a paragraph that wrapped across five lines on screen comes out as five separate lines. The "Join wrapped lines" rule puts them back together while keeping blank-line paragraph breaks and bullet or numbered lists.
Is my screenshot uploaded anywhere?
No. The OCR engine (Tesseract, compiled to WebAssembly) and every cleanup rule run inside this browser tab. Only the engine and its English language data are downloaded once from this site on first use, then cached by your browser.
Will it keep my headings, paragraphs and lists?
Blank lines are kept as paragraph breaks, and lines that start with a bullet, dash or number like "1." stay on their own line. A heading sitting directly on top of a paragraph with no gap is joined into it — add a blank line in the raw text, or switch off "Join wrapped lines".
Can I fix OCR mistakes before copying?
Yes. The raw OCR text on the left is editable. Correct any misread word there and the clean text updates instantly with the same rules applied.
Does it read handwriting or languages other than English?
It is tuned for printed English text such as app windows, web pages, chats and documents. Handwriting and other scripts will give unreliable results.
How we compare
| Feature | Online Tool Store | PowerToys Text Extractor | OnlineOCR.net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paste a screenshot straight from the clipboard | Yes — Ctrl+V or one button | Captures a screen region instead | Upload or drag a file |
| Joins wrapped lines and rejoins hyphenated words | Yes — five toggleable rules | No cleanup settings | No cleanup option listed |
| Image stays on your device | Yes | Yes, via Windows OCR | Uploaded, deleted after conversion |
| Works in any modern browser, nothing to install | Yes | Windows install required | Yes |
| No hourly limit | Yes | Yes | 5 files per hour as a guest |
If you want text from a screenshot that is ready to paste — sentences whole, lists intact, nothing uploaded — Screenshot to Clean Text does the OCR and the cleanup in one step, right in this tab.