Is Live Text free on a Mac?

Yes. It’s built into macOS and works in Preview, Photos, Quick Look and Safari, on your Mac.

Can I copy text from a scanned PDF?

Usually. Open it in Preview and select the text as you would in an image. For a searchable PDF you can keep, a document scanner app such as Prizmo adds a hidden text layer.

Does Live Text send my images anywhere?

No. Live Text recognises text on your Mac, so it works offline too.

Mac file guides

How to copy text from an image on a Mac

By Vishva Variya · Updated November 3, 2026 · 3 min read

Short answer

Open the image in Preview, hold the pointer over the text, drag to select it, then Control-click and choose Copy Text. Photos and Safari work the same way, and in Photos ⌘C copies the selection. This is Live Text: it runs on your Mac and is free. If Preview won’t select anything, choose Tools › Text Selection.

How do I copy text from an image in Preview?

1Open the image in Preview (double-click it, or Control-click › Open With › Preview).
2Hold the pointer over the text until it becomes a text cursor.
3Drag to select the words you want.
4Control-click the selection and choose Copy Text, then paste it anywhere.

If dragging draws a box instead of selecting words, choose Tools › Text Selection. Scanned PDFs work the same way in Preview.

How do I copy text from a photo in Photos or Safari?

1In Photos, open the photo, hold the pointer over the text, select it and press ⌘C (or Control-click › Copy Text).
2In Safari, hold the pointer over text in a picture on a web page, drag to select it, Control-click and choose Copy.

The same menu offers Look Up and, where available, Translate.

Why can’t I select the text in an image?

Preview’s selection tool is off: choose Tools › Text Selection.
Live Text isn’t available in every language or region; Apple lists which ones on its macOS Feature Availability page.
The text is too small, blurred or stylised to recognise. Zoom in on the original, or take a sharper screenshot (⇧⌘4).
The file isn’t an image Preview can open, such as text inside a video; pause and take a screenshot first.

How do I copy text from a screenshot right after taking it?

1Press ⇧⌘4 and drag over the area with the text.
2Click the thumbnail that appears in the corner to open it.
3Select the text and copy it, as in Preview.

If you grab text from the screen many times a day, a capture tool like TextSniper or CleanShot X does it in one shortcut.

Copying text from many images with Peekaboo

Live Text works one image at a time, and you have to find the image first. Peekaboo reads the text in your screenshots, photos and PDFs in the background, on your Mac, so you can search them by their words and copy the text of one image or fifty in one go. Nothing is uploaded. For a side-by-side of the apps that do this, see the best OCR apps for Mac.

1Open Text in Images from the sidebar.
2Select every image you need text from.
3Copy all their text at once, ready to paste.⇧⌘C

Questions

Is Live Text free on a Mac?: Yes. It’s built into macOS and works in Preview, Photos, Quick Look and Safari, on your Mac.
Can I copy text from a scanned PDF?: Usually. Open it in Preview and select the text as you would in an image. For a searchable PDF you can keep, a document scanner app such as Prizmo adds a hidden text layer.
Does Live Text send my images anywhere?: No. Live Text recognises text on your Mac, so it works offline too.