Safe software

[silverback]

I have a couple of photos (.jpg) of text. I would like to convert these to editable text.
I see from Dr. Google that there are quite a few links which purport to provide a free service.
Can anyone recommend a safe program to do this, please?
Thanks
Silverback

[stuck]

I don't know anything about OCR but Google found this page:
    https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-5-fre ... o-text-nb/
The first suggestion there is to use MS OneNote. If you don't have OneNote then further down the page (at heading 7.) it gives details of how you can use Google Docs.

Alternatively, unless there is a huge amount of text in your image, you could always just manually copy type it into Word / Notepad / what ever.

Does this help?

Ken

[silverback]

Ken
Thanks for your interest. I got very excited about OneNote as I have that on the PC, but it doesn't have the option that makeuseof suggests. And I don't have a Google Drive account at the moment.
I may just have to type the text in.
Silverback

[stuck]

A Google Drive account is not a separate login, i.e. if you already have a Google account (for gmail?) then you already have access to Drive, Docs, etc.

Copy typing may not be as painful as it sounds. It depends on how much text is involved. If it's pages for a book in a close set small font then yes, it could take a while. If it's two or three A4 pages of handwritten text then not so long. I'm no touch typist but I can type up 2-3 pages of my wife's handwriting in about half an hour.

Ken

[stuck]

PS see also the Private Message I've just sent to you.

Ken

[stuck]

...OneNote as I have that on the PC, but it doesn't have the option...

are you sure? According to this MS page:
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/off ... b09fd775b4
the feature is available in OneNote 2013 and higher.

Ken

[silverback]

Can't find it, and I have Office 365.
Opened OneNote, pasted in a copy of a photo. Right click- no option for 'Copy Text from Picture'
Is the instruction "Drag a scan or a saved picture into OneNote" different from copying the photo and then pasting it in?
Silverback

[stuck]

I've never used OneNote before but when I:
1. Opened OneNote 2016
2. Created a new empty notebook
3. Clicked Insert | Picture and opened an image containing text OR simply dragged the image from File Explorer into OneNote
then when I left clicked on the image, to ensure it was selected, then when I right clicked on it, the option to 'copy text' was there. If the the focus was not on the image then the right click menu did not have the 'copy text' option.

Once copied, I could then paste that text into another application. The OCR wasn't great, much of the text was garbled but the source text in the image wasn't that clear so I wasn't surprised by the end result.

Ken

[silverback]

Ken
A thousand thanks for this.

It took a lot of goes but eventually I managed to get the appropriate context menu displayed, and I do now know that OneNote has this capability.
Ain't it amazing what's lurking on one's computer already - if only one knew.
Thanks
Silverback

[stuck]

A for you too as I learnt new things as well!

Ken