When someone emails you a JPEG photograph of a printed document or a screenshot of an error message, you cannot naturally copy the text out of it because it is flat pixel data. Historically, you had to manually retype the entire paragraph into a word processor. However, modern versions of macOS (Monterey and newer) feature a powerful system-wide OCR engine called “Live Text.” This AI engine is built directly into the default Preview application, allowing you to highlight and copy text from a photograph exactly as if it were a standard Word document.
How to Extract Text Using Live Text
The Live Text feature runs automatically in the background the moment you open an image; there are no special menus to click or plugins to install.
- Double-click the photograph (JPEG, PNG, HEIC) to open it in the Preview app.
- Hover your mouse cursor directly over the text inside the photograph. Wait one second.
- You will notice your standard black mouse pointer magically change into an “I-beam” text selection cursor (the vertical line you see in text editors).
- Click and hold your mouse button down, then drag across the text in the image. The text will highlight in blue, just like a normal document.
- Press Command + C on your keyboard (or right-click and select Copy).
You can now open Apple Notes, Microsoft Word, or an email draft and press Command + V to paste the text. It will paste as perfectly formatted, editable digital text, saving you massive amounts of typing.
Using the Live Text Button
Sometimes, if the text in the photograph is very small or surrounded by complex, noisy backgrounds, the mouse cursor might struggle to recognize it immediately. If this happens, you can force the AI to scan the entire document at once.
Look at the bottom right corner of the Preview window. If the AI detects any readable words in the photograph, a small Live Text icon will appear (it looks like a small square with three horizontal lines inside it). Click this button.
The moment you click it, macOS will instantly scan the image and forcibly highlight every single readable word, paragraph, and phone number in bright blue. You can then easily click on the specific blocks of highlighted text you want to copy.