Image to Text Desktop App Download
Official download sources for each app. Download installers only from the developer or the Microsoft Store. Copies re-hosted on "download portal" sites are often out of date or bundled with adware.
Microsoft PowerToys (Text Extractor)
PowerToys is a free set of Windows utilities from Microsoft. Its Text Extractor module copies text from any part of the screen, using the OCR engine built into Windows.
| Developer | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| License | Free, open source (MIT) |
| Installer | Per-user or machine-wide .exe; Microsoft Store; winget |
| Architectures | x64, ARM64 |
| Official source | learn.microsoft.com/windows/powertoys · |
winget install --id Microsoft.PowerToys --source wingetText Grab
Text Grab is a lightweight OCR app. It offers a full-screen grab, a resizable "Grab Frame" window, and an "Edit Text" window for cleaning up the result. It also uses the Windows OCR engine.
| Developer | Joseph Finney (TheJoeFin) |
|---|---|
| License | Free, open source (MIT) |
| Installer | Microsoft Store; MSIX / self-contained builds on GitHub |
Capture2Text
Capture2Text is a portable OCR tool. Press a hotkey, draw a box around text on the screen, and the text is copied to the clipboard. It comes with its own OCR language data and can optionally translate the result.
| Developer | Christopher Brochtrup |
|---|---|
| License | Free (GPL) |
| Installer | Portable .zip. No installation needed. |
NAPS2 (Not Another PDF Scanner)
NAPS2 scans paper documents or imports image files and saves them as searchable PDFs. OCR runs on the Tesseract engine, and NAPS2 downloads the language files it needs from inside the app.
| Developer | Ben Olden-Cooligan and contributors |
|---|---|
| License | Free, open source (GPL) |
| Installer | .exe / .msi installer; portable .zip |
Tesseract OCR
Tesseract is an open-source OCR engine. It has no graphical window. You run it from the command line or call it from scripts and other apps. The Tesseract project points Windows users to installers built by UB Mannheim.
| Developer | Tesseract OCR community (originally HP, later Google). Windows builds by UB Mannheim. |
|---|---|
| License | Free, open source (Apache 2.0) |
| Installer | 64-bit .exe installer |
ABBYY FineReader PDF
FineReader PDF is a commercial OCR and PDF suite. It converts scans and images into editable Word, Excel, and searchable PDF files and keeps the original layout. A free trial is available from the vendor.
| Developer | ABBYY |
|---|---|
| License | Paid (subscription or perpetual). Free trial. |
| Installer | .exe installer with online activation |
Which one should I download?
- Copy text from the screen: PowerToys Text Extractor or Text Grab.
- No installation or admin rights: Capture2Text (portable) or the NAPS2 portable build.
- Turn scans or photos into searchable PDFs: NAPS2, or FineReader for complex layouts.
- Convert hundreds of images with a script: Tesseract.