Extracting Text from Images with Snipping Tool on Windows
I’ve been there myself — needing to pull some text out of a screenshot and having a bit of a headache about how to do it. Turns out, Windows actually has a handy built-in trick for this, which took me by surprise. It’s not some fancy third-party OCR app; it’s just the good old Snipping Tool, which most of us know for taking screenshots. But it can also do some basic text extraction. Honestly, a bit of a hidden gem if you’re running the latest Windows versions.
The first thing I checked was whether my Snipping Tool was up to date. Sometimes, app updates roll out via the Microsoft Store, especially on Windows 11. So, I opened the Store, searched for Snipping Tool, and checked for any updates. If your app feels a bit behind or isn’t giving you the features you need, that’s probably why — best to update first. On some systems, I had to restart the Store or reboot to get the update to stick properly. Once sorted, I launched the app. It’s usually pretty straightforward, but sometimes the updates don’t install immediately, so a bit of patience helps.
Once you’ve got the latest version running, open the image with the text you want to extract. You can do this directly in the Snipping Tool by clicking “New” and capturing your area, or simply open the image in an image viewer like Photos or even Paint if you like. After you’ve made your snip, look for the “Text Actions” button — it might be tucked away under a “…” menu or presented as a tiny icon, depending on your Windows setup. Click that, and it’ll analyse the image. This part is quite clever — it’s OCR-like, trying to read the text inside your snippet. It’s not flawless, but for quick stuff, it’s surprisingly handy, especially on Windows 11, where this feature is more integrated and smarter.
Once the analysis completes, you’ll see options like “Copy All Text” or “Copy Highlighted Text.” Usually, I go for “Copy All Text” to get everything, or just select a snippet if I only need part of it. Initially, I found it a bit hit-or-miss — sometimes the characters got jumbled if the image quality was poor. Honestly, if your screenshot is blurry or uses unusual fonts, don’t expect perfection, but it’s definitely useful for quick notes or copying small amounts of info.
Quick tip: Instead of digging through menus, you can summon the snipping toolbar directly with Windows + Shift + S. It’s a shortcut I’ve gotten used to — it opens a small overlay where you can snip, and then you can paste and analyse immediately. Once you’re used to it, it’s super quick. If you do lots of this, pinning that shortcut or creating a shortcut in the taskbar makes life even easier.
After copying the text, just paste it into Notepad, Word, or whatever your go-to application is — that’s the easiest way to check if it’s worked. Sometimes, you get perfect results, especially with good contrast and clear fonts. Other times, especially with lower-quality images, you might see gobbledygook or strange characters. That’s totally normal — OCR isn’t perfect, even built-in. If it’s an ongoing issue, I’ve found that adjusting the image — increasing contrast or giving it a slight sharpen — can help, but that’s usually more advanced than most casual users need.
Overall, I was pretty surprised at how effective this simple method can be. For quick, everyday tasks, it’s more than enough — no need to install extra software if you just want to copy some text quickly. A couple of clicks with Snipping Tool or the shortcut, and you’re all set. If you’ve got more serious OCR needs, tools like Adobe Scan or ABBYY LiTE are more reliable, but for most of us, this little trick does the job.
Next time you come across an image with text, give this a go. It’s one of those clever Windows tricks that’s so obvious once you know it — I totally missed it for ages. Hope this helps someone else out; I spent ages troubleshooting this myself, so I figured I’d share the tip. Good luck, and hopefully this saves you a few minutes — or even hours — of re-typing!