Live Text recognizes words inside photos, screenshots, scanned pages, and some PDFs so you can select and copy them like normal text. It can also act on phone numbers, email addresses, links, and addresses.
Live Text works in Photos, Preview, Quick Look, and screenshots on Macs running macOS Monterey or later.
Does This Affect You?
Use Live Text when information is trapped in an image and you would rather copy it than retype it manually.
Use Live Text in Photos
- Open Photos and view the image full size.
- Move the pointer over visible text or click the Live Text icon if it appears.
- Drag across the text you want to select.
- Press Command + C, or right-click and choose Copy.
- Paste into Notes, Mail, Pages, a browser, or another app with Command + V.
When text is selected, the context menu may also offer Translate or Look Up, depending on the content and language.
Use Live Text in Preview, Quick Look, and Screenshots
- Open an image or PDF in Preview, or select the file in Finder and press Space for Quick Look.
- Move the pointer over the text. It changes to a text-selection cursor where Live Text recognizes words.
- Drag to select the text and copy it with Command + C.
- For a new screenshot, open the saved screenshot or click the corner thumbnail before it disappears, then select text the same way.
Live Text Extras
Act on Detected Items
Click recognized phone numbers, email addresses, web links, and street addresses to call, email, open a page, or view a location when macOS offers the action.
Select All Text
Right-click the image area and choose Select All Text when available to grab everything recognized instead of dragging line by line.
Translate from an Image
Select recognized text, right-click, and choose Translate to work with languages you do not have to type yourself.
If Nothing Selects
The image may be blurry, low resolution, handwritten in a difficult style, or too stylized. Try a sharper scan or photo if possible.
Turn Live Text Off
Open System Settings > General > Language & Region and disable Live Text to turn it off system-wide.
Sources
- Apple Support: Use Live Text to interact with content in a photo on Mac
- Apple Support: Copy text from a photo or screenshot on Mac
- Apple: Photos app features