Image to Text—Convert Photos to PDF or Word

Have you scanned your favorite book or taken a photo of something you’d like to work on in a text editing tool? Use Smallpdf to convert these images into text formats, such as Word or PDF. Our tools are free to use!

PDFs are great if you need to store, share, or simply read and review content. To convert images to text in PDF format, follow these instructions:

Image to Text Converter—Word Format

To convert your image to text, specifically .docx, follow the first two steps; then, instead of downloading, click “Export As.” You’ll find a list of format options, including Word. Choose this option, and you’ll have two choices:

1. Convert selectable text: This option is available to all users. It extracts text from PDFs to a Word document.
2. Convert text from scans: This option is limited to Smallpdf Pro users. It uses powerful OCR technology to detect text in an image or a scan and convert it to editable text in Word.

The second option is likely what you’re looking for when you want to convert an image to text. Although it’s only available to Smallpdf Pro users, we offer a 7-day free trial, so anyone can give it a whirl and discover how useful it can be—without paying a dime.

Why Should I Convert Images to Text Files?

Both PDF and Word formats are universal file types. Word is excellent when you need to modify the existing content of your image files. PDF, on the other hand, is portable and compatible with nearly every single operating system, device, and browser.

Text files, specifically PDFs, are also secure and easy to use as they can be easily encrypted with a password, which makes file sharing much safer. Also, we offer the most popular PDF compressor in case you ever need to resize your image files after you convert them to text. Depending on the quality of the images, they can be quite bulky!

Furthermore, PDF readers are free to download and use everywhere, whereas Microsoft Word isn’t. We have our own PDF reader, which you can use via our Smallpdf Reader page.

What Else Can I Do With My Files?

With the free online tools available on Smallpdf, you can compress, edit, or convert your text files into other formats. After the picture-to-text conversion, you have many tools for you to choose from to continue working on your document. And, of course, you can always reverse the process by using another converter.

We have all the tools to keep you productive thanks to simple, streamlined workflows for digital documents. Check out our full suite of tools via our homepage, or go to our helpdesk if you have questions regarding the process of converting a photo to text.