Short answer
On Windows 11, Snipping Tool can copy text from a screenshot with Text actions, and Microsoft PowerToys adds a Text Extractor for any part of the screen. For photos, videos and Bangla text, a free app like QuickNotes copies it with a double-tap of Right Alt.
You've got a photo of a poster, a screenshot of a booking or a paused video with the exact words you need. You can see the text, but you can't select it, so you end up typing it out letter by letter. There are faster ways.
What Windows can already do
- Snipping Tool (Windows 11): take a screenshot with Win + Shift + S, open it in Snipping Tool and click Text actions. You can then select the words or click Copy all text. It's built in, but it's a few clicks every time.
- PowerToys Text Extractor: Microsoft's free PowerToys adds a shortcut, Win + Shift + T, that lets you draw a box anywhere on the screen and copies the text inside it. It reads English and other languages Windows supports well.
- Google Lens in Chrome: right-click a picture on a website and choose Search image with Google Lens, then pick Text. Handy for images online, less so for photos on your PC.
These work fine for clean English text. They struggle with blurry photos, handwriting-style fonts and languages like Bangla, where most built-in readers return a jumble of letters.
Copy text from a photo, step by step
- Open the photo, video or PDF so the text is on your screen. Pause the video on the right frame.
- Zoom in if the text is small. Bigger text is read more accurately by every tool.
- Use one of the tools above, or the easy way below, and draw a tight box around just the words you want.
- Paste with Ctrl + V and check numbers and names before you send them on.
Text you normally can't copy
A few places where this saves the most time:
- A phone number or address in a photo someone sent on WhatsApp.
- A recipe, a slide or subtitles in a paused YouTube video.
- A scanned PDF where nothing can be selected.
- An error message on screen that you want to search for.
The easy way: double-tap Right Alt
I wanted this to take one second, so I made QuickNotes, a free little Windows app. Tap Right Alt twice, drag over any text on your screen, and it's copied. It reads photos, videos, PDFs and apps, in Bangla, English, Hindi and more, because it uses Google Gemini to read the text.
- Download QuickNotes and double-click the file. There's nothing to install.
- The first time, it helps you get a free Gemini key in about a minute: click Open AI Studio, then Create API key, then Test and Save.
- Double-tap Right Alt, drag a box, and paste.
Right Alt keeps working as normal; only a quick double-tap starts a scan. One honest note: only the box you drag is sent to Google, but on the free plan Google may use it to improve its products, so don't scan passwords or bank details.