Free Multi-Language OCR: Extract Text in Spanish, French, German, and More
- Supports 8 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese
- Select your language before extracting for best accuracy
- Runs entirely in your browser — no signup, no image upload
- Works on JPG, PNG, WebP, and BMP image files
Table of Contents
Most free OCR tools work fine for English but struggle or fail entirely with accented characters, non-Latin scripts, or non-English punctuation. If you need to extract text from a Spanish receipt, a French contract, a German form, or a Chinese document, you need a tool that is trained on the right language model.
Raven Image to Text supports 8 languages with dedicated language selection — no extra cost, no special setup.
Supported Languages
The following languages are supported with a dedicated language selector:
- English — default, best accuracy baseline
- Spanish (Español) — handles accented characters (á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ)
- French (Français) — handles French accents and special characters (è, ê, ç, œ)
- German (Deutsch) — handles umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and ß
- Portuguese (Português) — handles cedilla, tilde-vowels, and accents (ã, ê, ç)
- Italian (Italiano) — handles Italian accent marks
- Chinese Simplified (中文) — character recognition for Simplified Chinese script
- Japanese (日本語) — supports Hiragana, Katakana, and basic Kanji
How to Use Multi-Language OCR
- Open the Image to Text tool.
- Upload your image (JPG, PNG, WebP, or BMP).
- Before clicking Extract: open the language dropdown and select the correct language for your image.
- Click Extract Text.
- Review and copy the result.
Selecting the wrong language reduces accuracy. If your image is Spanish but you have English selected, accented characters will often be misread. Always set the language first.
Sell Custom Apparel — We Handle Printing & Free ShippingAccuracy Notes by Language
European languages (Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian) perform well on clear printed text. The main challenge is accented characters — these extract accurately when the language is set correctly.
Chinese Simplified works best on printed or typed text. Handwritten Chinese has much lower accuracy due to the complexity of character variation.
Japanese handles printed Hiragana and Katakana reliably. Mixed Kanji text is recognized but accuracy varies by character complexity and image quality.
For all languages, sharp, high-contrast images at 300 DPI or better give the best results.
What This Tool Cannot Do
This tool extracts text — it does not translate it. If you need the Spanish or French text translated to English, copy the result and paste it into Google Translate or DeepL.
The tool does not support Traditional Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, or other scripts beyond the 8 listed. If you need those, you will need a different OCR service.
Extract Text in Your Language
Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese — 8 languages, no signup.
Open Image to Text ToolFrequently Asked Questions
Can it extract mixed-language text from one image?
The tool processes the entire image with the selected language model. If the image has both English and Spanish text, select Spanish (which covers accented characters) and review the English portions manually if needed.
Does it support Traditional Chinese?
Only Chinese Simplified is supported. Traditional Chinese characters may produce partial results but are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Do I need to create an account to use non-English languages?
No. All 8 languages are available free with no account required.
What file formats are supported?
JPG, PNG, WebP, and BMP. HEIC and TIFF are not supported — convert to JPG first if needed.
