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Images·7 min read

How to translate text from an image, step by step

A menu abroad, a chat message in another language, an error message in a screenshot. To translate it, you first need the words as text. Here is how to get them out of the picture, where to paste them and what translation can get wrong.

By LoschaZ·Updated

The short answer

Copy the text out of the picture first, then translate it. Paste a screenshot into our AI Text Scanner, pick the language the text is written in, copy the result and paste it into the translator you trust. On a phone, Live Text and Google Lens can also translate in one step. Check names, numbers and line breaks before you rely on the result.

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How does translating text from an image work?

Translating text from an image is two jobs. First, text recognition (OCR) reads the letters in the picture. Then a translator turns those words into another language.

Some apps do both in one tap, which is quick. But you do not see what was read, so one misread letter can become a wrong word in the translation. Doing it in two steps lets you check the text in between.

Two speech bubbles, one green and one orange, each with lines of text. Two curved arrows between them point from one bubble to the other and back.
One message, two languages. The words have to be read correctly before they can be translated correctly.

How to copy text from a screenshot

Take the screenshot, paste it into a text scanner and copy the text it finds. The screenshot page of the AI Text Scanner is set up for exactly this.

A person points at a large phone showing a chat. A dashed selection box with corner handles surrounds two message bubbles in the middle of the conversation.
Draw a box around only the messages you need. Names, times and buttons outside the box stay out of the text.

  1. Take the screenshot

    Windows: press the Windows logo key + Shift + S. Mac: Control-Shift-Command-4 copies the area you drag to the clipboard. iPhone: side button and volume up together. Android: Power and Volume down together.

  2. Paste it

    Open the scanner and press Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac), or use the “Paste screenshot” button if your browser shows it. On a phone, press “Choose images” and pick the screenshot from your photos.

  3. Pick the language of the text

    Under “Text language”, choose English, German, French or Spanish: the language the text is written in, not the one you want to read it in.

  4. Mark the part you need

    Drag across the lines you want, for example two messages in a chat. On a touch screen, tap “Select part” first. Press “Read text”, then “Copy text”.

Copy text from a screenshot on Windows, iPhone and Android

Each of them has a built-in way, and Macs do too. These are quick for a few words.

  • Windows 11: take the screenshot with Snipping Tool, open the snip and select the “Text actions” button. Then select the words, or choose “Copy all text”. Microsoft says this text recognition runs on your device.
  • iPhone: open the screenshot in Photos and tap the text button in the corner (the Detect Text button in Apple’s current guide, the Live Text button in an older article). Touch and hold the text, then tap “Copy Text”.
  • Android: open the Google app, tap the Lens icon in the search bar, tap “Search” and pick the screenshot under “Screenshots”. Tap the text, tap “Select text”, then “Copy”.
  • Mac: open the screenshot in Preview, drag across the text, Control-click and choose “Copy Text”.

How to translate the extracted text into English

Paste the text into a translator you trust, set English as the target language, and keep the original next to the result. The same works for any other target language.

  1. Clean up the text first

    In the scanner, fix any misread words and turn on “Join broken lines”, so each sentence is in one piece. Then press “Copy text”.

  2. Paste it into a translator

    Open the translation website or app you already use, such as Google Translate, and paste the text.

  3. Set the two languages

    Choose the language of the text, or let the translator detect it. Then choose English, or the language you need, as the target.

  4. Read it side by side

    Keep the original visible while you read the translation. If a sentence makes no sense, look at the original line: a misread letter is often the cause.

Image to text translator on your phone: Live Text, Lens and Translate

If you only need the meaning quickly, for a menu or a sign, your phone can read and translate in one go.

  • iPhone: open the photo, tap the Live Text button (called the Detect Text button in Apple’s current guide), then “Translate”. You might need to tap “Continue” and choose a language first.
  • Android with Google Lens: open the Google app, tap the Lens icon, and under “Search with your camera” tap “Translate”. Take a photo, or pick one under “Screenshots” or “All images”, and choose the languages in the language menu.
  • Google Translate app on Android: tap “Camera”, point at the text and tap the shutter button, or tap “All Images” to use a photo you already have. Google says camera translations also work offline for languages you have downloaded.
  • Mac: in Preview or Photos, select the text, Control-click, choose “Translate” and pick a language.

What to check after you translate text from an image

Check the parts a machine gets wrong most easily: names, numbers, line breaks and short words without context.

  • Names: a family name, a street or a product can be translated as if it were an ordinary word. Compare every name with the original.
  • Numbers and dates: compare them digit by digit. 03/04 is March 4 in the US and 3 April in the UK, and 1.500 can mean one and a half or fifteen hundred.
  • Prices and units: check the currency and the unit, not just the number.
  • Line breaks: a sentence split over two lines can come out as two half-sentences. Join the lines before you translate.
  • Short texts: a menu item or a sign has no context, so the translator has to guess, and one word can have several meanings.
  • Accents: if letters such as é, ü or ñ are missing, the wrong scan language was probably selected. Read the picture again with the right one.

Questions you might still have

Can the AI Text Scanner translate the text?

No. It reads printed text in English, German, French or Spanish and gives it to you as text. Paste that text into the translator you trust.

How do I translate a picture to English?

Read the text with the language of the picture selected, copy it, and paste it into a translator with English as the target. On a phone, Live Text and Google Lens can also translate a photo directly.

Which languages can the scanner read from a screenshot?

English, German, French and Spanish, one at a time. The language file loads the first time you use it, and your browser keeps it for next time. For text in other languages, try Google Lens or the Google Translate app.

Is it safe to translate a private screenshot?

The scanner keeps the picture and the text on your device. The translator you paste into does receive the text, so remove names, phone numbers or account details you do not need first.

Why does the translation break sentences apart?

Because the text keeps the line breaks of the picture. Turn on “Join broken lines” before you copy: it joins the lines inside a paragraph and repairs words split by a hyphen at a line end.

Do I need to install an app to copy text from a screenshot?

No. Windows 11 has Snipping Tool, iPhone and Mac have Live Text, and Android phones with Google Photos or the Google app can use Google Lens. The AI Text Scanner runs in your browser, so there is nothing to install either.

Sources & useful details

These guides are written from the current LoschaZ tools and the sources listed above. Examples are illustrations, not tests on every device or promises of an identical result.

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