The different types of content and files with which we work on our computer are very varied. Sometimes they are even intermingled, such as those situations in which we need to extract a certain text from an image. Next, we will talk about a new PowerToys tool that may be very interesting and very helpful.
The use of a multitude of photographic files at the moment is very common in most computers. Whether on a personal or professional level, we use photos in different file formats for multiple jobs and tasks. Generally we can modify the content of these images that we comment on through their corresponding editors. A clear example of all this can be found in Adobe Photoshop, among others.
However, at the same time we may find ourselves faced with the need to carry out other tasks that are not related to photo editing. It may be the case that these images contain certain texts that we want to extract in order to work with them independently. This is something that at first might seem quite complicated to us, but Microsoft helps us. Specifically, in this case, it does so through a new tool that it has made available in its well-known PowerToys.
In case you don’t know, these PowerToys that we are talking about are a series of tools for Windows that improve the functionality of the system. Actually, they add a priori features not available in it that can be very useful to us. In addition, they update them every so often adding new tools and functions, as is the case at hand.
How to extract text from photos
Perhaps many of you are familiar with the OCR function that we have been benefiting from for years. These optical character recognition functions allow us to extract text from both images and physical documents . Well, now we find a tool that does these same tasks and that we can use quickly and also for free. To benefit from it, we only have to initially download the PowerToys from their corresponding official GitHub page.
Next, located on the left side of the main window, we find the different functions available here and offered by Microsoft. Something that we must take into consideration is that to benefit from all this we need to have the PowerToys version 0.62 or later. Thus, we will see here the aforementioned Text Extractor tool, an OCR-type function that extracts text from any region that we mark in Windows. It must be said that it works in a similar way to the screenshot tools.
We just have to make a rectangular selection with the mouse around the region from which we want to extract the text. We can access it from the PowerToys interface itself, or by using the Win + Shift + T key combination. At that moment we will see that the screen turns gray. From that moment we will be able to use the mouse to draw the aforementioned rectangle with the section from which we need to extract the text .
Finally, it is worth knowing that at that moment the marked text is identified and interpreted by the function itself. In this way, it automatically copies it to the clipboard so that we can use it wherever we need it, it’s that easy.
