Translate Text in Images

Good uses for image translation

• Menus, street signs, product labels and instructions while travelling.
• Screenshots of messages, posts or app screens in another language.
• Packaging and ingredient lists on products bought online.
• Photographed letters or notices, to understand them before getting a professional translation.

How it works

Your browser shrinks the picture so its longest side is at most 1,600 pixels and turns it into a compact JPEG. That copy goes to our server and on to our AI provider, which reads the text and returns it together with a translation into one of 36 languages. Nothing is saved after the answer comes back.

Because a language model reads the text, it understands context better than letter-by-letter OCR, but it can still misread small, blurred or stylised writing.

Tips and limits

• Fill the frame with the text and keep the photo sharp and well lit.
• For long documents, translate one page per image, or use Translate PDF for PDF files.
• Machine translation is a guide: for legal, medical or official documents, use a qualified translator.
• Images up to 30 MB can be chosen; they are reduced before sending.
• If you only need the text, not a translation, Image to Text reads it on your device without sending it anywhere.

Reading the result

The text found in the image is shown next to its translation, so you can check that nothing was missed before you rely on it. Right-to-left languages such as Urdu, Arabic and Persian are shown right to left.

Both boxes have a copy button, and the download saves the original and the translation together in one .txt file. If part of the picture was cut off or blurry, that text may be missing from both, so retake the photo rather than guessing.