Copy Text from an Image and Translate — Free Step-by-Step

Got a photo of a foreign-language document, receipt, menu, or label and need to know what it says? You can copy the text and translate it for free in two steps — no app, no account, no subscription.

The workflow uses a browser OCR tool to get the text out of the image, then a translation service to convert it to English (or any other language).

Why Two Steps Instead of One

Some tools promise "image translation" in one step. Most of these send your image to a remote server for processing. The two-step approach — OCR then translate — is faster, more private, and gives you better control: you can review and correct the extracted text before passing it to translation, which improves accuracy significantly.

Google Lens does this in one step on mobile, but requires a Google account. The workflow below works on any device without any account.

Step 1: Extract the Text from Your Image

1. Open the Image to Text tool in your browser.
2. Drag in your image — JPG, PNG, WebP, or BMP.
3. In the language dropdown, select the original language of the text in the image. This is important for accuracy. If the image is Spanish, select Spanish — not English.
4. Click Extract Text.
5. Review the result for obvious errors. Numbers, dates, and proper nouns are the most error-prone.
6. Click Copy to Clipboard.

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Step 2: Translate Using Google Translate or DeepL

Google Translate (translate.google.com):
Paste the text in the left box, set the source language, choose your target language, and read the translation on the right. Free and supports 100+ languages.

DeepL (deepl.com):
Paste your text, select source and target languages. DeepL is often more accurate than Google Translate for European languages — Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese all translate well.

Both are free for everyday use. DeepL has a character limit on the free tier; Google Translate is unlimited.

Supported Source Languages for OCR

The following image text languages can be extracted: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese Simplified, Japanese. Set the matching language in the tool before extracting.

If your image is in a language not on this list (Arabic, Russian, Korean, Traditional Chinese, etc.), the tool will attempt extraction in English mode — results will be inaccurate. Use a different OCR service for those languages.

Tips for Better Translation Results

• Fix obvious OCR errors first — a garbled word becomes a wrong translation. Spot-check numbers, names, and short words before translating.
• Translate the full text at once — pasting one coherent block gives better contextual translation than pasting sentence by sentence.
• Compare Google and DeepL — for formal or technical documents, DeepL often produces more natural results.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the OCR tool translate the text automatically?

No. It extracts the text in the original language. You then paste into a translation service. This two-step approach gives you better control and accuracy than one-click image translation services.

What if my image language is not in the 8 supported languages?

The OCR will attempt extraction but accuracy will be poor. For languages outside English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese Simplified, and Japanese, use Google Lens (mobile) or a full online OCR service with broader language support.

Is this workflow free?

Yes. The Image to Text tool is completely free. Google Translate and DeepL both have free tiers that cover everyday translation needs.

Can I use this for Chinese or Japanese documents?

Yes. Select Chinese Simplified or Japanese in the language dropdown, extract the text, then paste into DeepL or Google Translate. DeepL handles Chinese-to-English and Japanese-to-English translation well.