How to Extract Text from a Screenshot (OCR)

LamShot's OCR feature reads text from your screenshots and copies it to the clipboard, so you can paste it into any document or app. No third-party tools or subscriptions needed — it runs entirely on your machine.

How OCR Works in LamShot

When you take a screenshot, LamShot begins analyzing the image for text in the background, before you even click anything. By the time you click the OCR button in the toolbar, the result is often ready instantly.\n\nThe OCR engine recognizes printed text in dozens of languages. It handles standard fonts well, including those used in browsers, operating systems, IDEs, and office software. Decorative or handwritten fonts may have lower accuracy.

Using the OCR Button

1. Take a screenshot of the area containing text

   Use region capture to select just the area with the text you want to extract. A tighter, more focused capture gives OCR a cleaner image to work with and usually produces better results than capturing a large messy area.

2. Click the OCR button in the toolbar

   After the capture, find the OCR button in the LamShot toolbar — it is typically labeled OCR or shown with a text/letter icon. Click it.

3. Wait briefly for the result

   LamShot processes the image and displays the recognized text in a small result panel. If background processing had already finished, this appears almost immediately. For very large or complex screenshots, it may take a second or two.

4. Text is copied to your clipboard

   The recognized text is automatically copied to the clipboard when the result appears. You can paste it straight into any text field, document, or editor with Ctrl+V. You can also select and copy specific parts of the text from the result panel if you only need a portion.

Tips for Better OCR Accuracy

Capture at 100% zoom. Text that is zoomed out in the browser or app will be smaller on screen and harder for OCR to read. Zoom in before capturing for best results.\n\nAvoid low-contrast combinations. Black text on white backgrounds gives the best results. Light gray text on white or dark text on dark backgrounds reduces accuracy significantly.\n\nCapture text regions only. If your screenshot includes both text and large image areas, OCR may include noise or stray characters from the non-text parts. Use a tight region selection to focus on just the text.\n\nFor images embedded in PDFs or documents: open the document at a higher zoom level (150% or 200%) before capturing. This gives LamShot more pixels to work with and improves recognition quality.

Common Use Cases

Copying error messages from dialog boxes or terminals — no more typing error codes by hand.\n\nExtracting text from images in emails or websites that do not allow text selection.\n\nCapturing text from video frames or screen recordings paused at the right moment.\n\nConverting scanned documents displayed in a PDF viewer into editable text.