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PowerToys will soon get an OCR tool to copy text from any image

Taras Buria Neowin @TarasBuria · Aug 17, 2022 04:32 EDT · Hot! with 8 comments

Microsoft and the open-source developer community are busy preparing new tools for PowerToys. In addition to the Screen Ruler utility, PowerToys will soon get an OCR "toy", allowing users to copy text from any image or region on the screen.

According to a PR in PowerToys's GitHub repository, PowerOCR supports copying text from a rectangular region, clicking a word, and right-clicking any image file. As of now, PowerOCR is in its early stage, meaning developers have a lot of work to complete before shipping the tool to the public. Meanwhile, users can see the tool in action in the following GIF:

An early version of PowerOCR in action copying text from an image

PowerOCR will be a fantastic addition to PowerToys, especially when you consider that similar capabilities exist on the system level in other operating systems. For example, iOS allows grabbing text from any picture, and the upcoming iOS 16 release will extend these capabilities to videos.

You can follow the development process of the PowerOCR tool on GitHub via this link.