You Can Now Copy Text From Images on Windows
Microsoft PowerToys has a new utility that allows you to copy text from images: if someone sends you a picture of their business card or a screenshot of their bank account details, you can use PowerToys to quickly copy it to Windows. The new utility is called Text Extractor and is available with the PowerToys update to version 0.62 . You can download the latest version of PowerToys from GitHub; after installing it, open PowerToys and click Text Extractor in the left pane.
How to use Text Extractor on Windows
You will now see the keyboard shortcut for extracting text in the right pane in PowerToys. The default keyboard shortcut is Windows + Shift + T. The next time you come across text inside an image, or if you’re on a website that blocks copy and paste, use the keyboard shortcut to activate Text Extractor and then click and drag the text to copy it. You can also press and hold Shift and drag the original selection to other parts of the screen, which will help if you make a small selection mistake. After the text is copied, open any application that allows you to enter text and press Ctrl + V to paste it there.
You can also customize the Text Extractor if you’re not a fan of the default keyboard shortcut. Go to PowerToys and click “Text Extraction” in the left pane, then click ” Settings ” in the right pane. Click the pencil icon next to the activation shortcut . In the new window, press the key combination you want to bind to the Text Extractor; click Save and you’re done. Note that this keyboard shortcut must start with the Windows key, Ctrl or Alt.
Try Other New PowerToys Utilities
PowerToys v0.62 also contains several other useful tools. Quick Accent lets you type characters with diacritics much faster, and Screen Ruler lets you measure the number of pixels on any part of the screen.
Quick Accent must be manually enabled via PowerToys. Once you do that, you can press and hold any letter on your keyboard and immediately press the left or right arrow keys. You will see a neat toolbar with all the characters with diacritics associated with that letter – choose the one you need.
Screen Ruler is also easy to use. After updating PowerToys to version 0.62, press Windows + Shift + M to launch it. Select the Borders tool from the toolbox, click and drag the area you want to measure. You will see the number of pixels in that area on the screen. To keep it on screen, hold down the Shift key while clicking and dragging.