Last Updated on September 25, 2023 by Christopher G Mendla
Google Photos has a great feature where you can capture text from your images. Unfortunately it does not always work. Here is a very simple fix.
Overview – Copying text from Google Photos images
You can copy text from photos in Google Images. This is very helpful with things like product information labels or receipts. The process uses google lens and is astonishingly accurate
I use this feature on my Windows Desktop with my Chrome browser. The process is simple. Just open the image from which you want to extract text. There should be a “Copy text from image” button.
When you click that button, OCR extracts text from the image and you can click the “Copy Text” button
The text will then be on your clipboard.
The Problem – Some times the “Copy text from image” button does not show
I’ve run into situations where the “Copy text from image” button is not showing. This can be moderately annoying.
The Solutions
Close and reopen the Google Photos Tab
I’ve found a simple solution that seems to work all the time. Simply close your Google Photos tab and reopen Google Photos. In some cases, you will now be able to extract text from your images.
Enhance the image
If closing and reopening the Google Photos tab doesn’t work, try enhancing the image. Go into the settings for the receipt image. A combination of the following may help make the image OCR compatible.
- Increase the brightness
- Increase the contrast.
- Increase the “Pop” (See if that makes the text appear clearer)
Once you have the image as clear and with a good contrast, save it and see if the “Copy text from image” button shows.
Try ChatGpt
I tried ChagGPT with the original, unenhanced, image.
- You need to have the paid plan ($20/month as of Oct 2023).
- In ChatGPT 4, choose “Advanced Data Analysis”.
- Save the file from Google Photos to an easily located folder
- Use the + button in the message dialog to upload your image.
I found that ChatGPT was not able to do an accurate OCR of the original image. It also didn’t do as well as Google Photos with the enhanced image (Oct 2023). I’m sure it’s accuracy will improve rapidly over time
Use a flash
I generally prefer to not use a flash in a restaurant as it can be distracting to other diners. However, I think that if you want an OCR readable image, a flash should make a huge difference.