Two excellent apps for capturing text from images with OCR
Datum: 2025-12-11 08:39
Imagine reading a newspaper and coming across a fascinating article you want to save. There is a particularly long section that you would like to transcribe and quote in an internal report you are currently working on.
You don’t want to spend time and effort manually typing out the text, key by key, but you still want it in digital and editable format. You could, of course, look up the same article online — if it were available there. It’s not (at least you can’t find it). What should you do?
For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the ""Done!"" podcast:
Use OCR
A reader asked me for recommendations for OCR (Optical Character Recognition) apps, which extract text from images and provide it to you in an editable format. Such an app is what I would turn to in the situation I just described.
Two easily accessible apps
Fortunately, there are two great apps that are both free. There are, of course, more, but the two I want to highlight here are:
Microsoft Lens
The app used to be Office Lens and is available for Android and iPhone. You take a picture with the app and then adjust the size of the “clip” so that you don’t include any unnecessary details. When you are satisfied, click “Confirm” and the app will give you the text that you can copy with a single click or share to another app on your phone — for example, the phone version of the app you are writing in (so that the text syncs and you can continue working with it from your computer) or an email you send to yourself.
In addition to OCR, the app also has functions for scanning documents, tables, and whiteboards.
Google Lens
Google Lens is a feature that you can find in the regular Google app (Android, iPhone). You can access it by clicking on the stylized camera icon at the far right of the search bar (in the app). Take a picture by clicking the shutter button (don’t worry that it says ”Tap shutter button to search”) and adjust the clip size. The app automatically gives you search results, but you can ignore those. Instead, click on ”Homework” (yes, really!) because behind there, you will find a button to copy the text so that you can paste it into another app, as well as a button to copy it to your computer if you are logged in to the same Google account. That way, the text will appear as a clip on your computer and you can paste it wherever you want.
Which app is best for OCR?
I tested both apps on the same page of a book. They both interpreted the text equally well.
However, Google Lens maintained the paragraph breaks, while Microsoft Lens compressed the text into one long paragraph. Microsoft Lens also merged hyphenated words on the book page, while Google Lens wrote them on the same line but with an ugly dash in the middle.
So, they were equally skilled, but each had its flaw that the other did not. It was a tie!
Do this
If you occasionally need OCR reading, try both apps or one of them, if you haven’t already. It won’t cost you more than a few minutes of your time!
You save time
If you use an OCR app, you can quickly and easily extract text that you would otherwise have to type manually or find in an already digital format. You don’t have to spend time on an operation that an app can do just as well, and you have more time to do what you do best.
What about you?
Do you use any other OCR app that works fantastically well? Feel free to write to me and l et me know.
(Speaking of apps, check out my tips on how to establish traffic rules for your apps and tools!)
Do you want even more ideas?
If you want more tips on how to create good structure at work, there are many ways to get that from me - in podcasts, videos, books, talks and other formats.
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