Chinese OCR: image to text
Chinese OCR for photos, screenshots and scans: add the image and get Simplified or Traditional Chinese text you can copy, translate and edit, with English and numbers read too.
Chinese OCR that understands the script
Chinese has thousands of characters, many of them told apart by a single stroke, and documents often mix characters with English words, prices and phone numbers. The reader used here is PaddleOCR, trained on both Simplified and Traditional characters and on English, so a single line such as an invoice total or a product name with a model number comes out whole. It runs in your browser, so screenshots of chats or IDs stay on your device.
What reads well
- Printed Simplified Chinese from mainland documents, websites and WeChat screenshots.
- Traditional Chinese from Taiwan and Hong Kong documents, menus and signs.
- Lines that mix Chinese with English, prices, dates and phone numbers.
- Horizontal text. Vertical text in top-to-bottom columns is not read yet.
For the most accurate Chinese text
- 1Use a sharp photo with the characters at least as tall as small print: dense characters lose strokes first when the photo is blurry.
- 2Screenshots read better than photos of a screen; press Ctrl+V on this page to paste one directly.
- 3Translating? Copy the result into your translator: the text keeps its line breaks and paragraphs.
Questions about Chinese OCR: image to text
How do I copy Chinese text from a picture?+
Add the picture or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V. Chinese is already selected, so click Extract text and copy the result, or download it as TXT or Word.
Does it read Traditional Chinese?+
Yes. The same model reads Simplified and Traditional characters, and both are selected on this page, so you do not need to know which one the image uses.
Can it read English mixed with Chinese?+
Yes. English words, numbers and symbols inside Chinese lines are read in the same pass. For a mostly English document, also select English for the best accuracy on accents and punctuation.
Does it support vertical Chinese text?+
Not yet. It reads horizontal lines, which covers most documents, screenshots and signs. Vertical columns, as in some books and couplets, are not read in order.
Is my image uploaded?+
No. The OCR model downloads once (about 20 MB) and runs in your browser; your images never leave your device.