Chinese OCR Tools for Reading & Translation
Turn Chinese text in images, screenshots, PDFs, and photos into editable text with OCR (Optical Character Recognition). These tools can help you copy Chinese characters from materials that would otherwise require manual typing, and some also offer translation, pronunciation, or text lookup features.
Already Have OCR on Your Device?
You may not need a separate OCR app or website. Many phones, tablets, and computers already have tools that can recognize Chinese text in photos, screenshots, and images. Choose a tool below based on what you want to do with the text.
Built-In OCR
Apple Live Text is built into supported iPhones and iPads, so you may already have a Chinese OCR tool without installing anything. Use it in Camera or Photos to recognize Chinese characters in signs, books, screenshots, worksheets, and other images. Once the text is recognized, you can select and copy it, look it up, search for it or translate it.
Built Into Your Device
Apple Preview is built into macOS and can recognize text in photos and images using Live Text. Chinese learners can select recognized text to copy and paste it into another app, look up words, search the web or translate the text without having to type the characters manually. Preview can also recognize text in scanned or image-based PDFs, making previously unselectable text available for copying. Available on Mac.
Built into Your Device
Google Lens is built into several Google products and can recognize text in photos, screenshots, webpages, and other images. You can access Lens through Google Photos, the Google app, Chrome, and other Google services, depending on your device. Use it to select and copy Chinese characters from images or onscreen content instead of typing them manually.
Built Into Your Device
Windows Snipping Tool includes built-in OCR that can recognize text in screenshots. After capturing Chinese text from a website, video, app, or other content on your screen, use Text Actions to select and copy the characters, then paste them into a dictionary, translator, flashcards, or other study tool. Built into Windows.
Built Into Your DeviceOCR Tools
Adobe Acrobat Online OCR can turn scanned or image-based PDFs into searchable, selectable text, making it useful for extracting Chinese from textbooks, worksheets, articles and other PDF materials. It works best with clear, high-quality printed text; blurry or low-resolution scans, unusual fonts, complex layouts, and other difficult source material may produce recognition errors, so check the extracted Chinese before using it for study. For best results, select the appropriate Chinese language when that option is available.
Free Web-Based
Apple Translate lets you use your iPhone or iPad camera to translate Chinese text in real time, or translate text from an existing photo in your library. Translations can appear directly over the original text, making it especially useful for signs, menus, packaging, and other printed Chinese. Available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
Free App
This extension allows you to copy and paste hard subtitles. You can also use the ZhongWen popup dictionary directly on video subtitles when using this extension. See our CopyFish tutorial HERE.
Free Chrome Extension
Simply upload a file to Google Drive, then right click on the file to open it in Google Docs. Google Drive OCR will auto start. Wait a moment and a new document will open, containing the newly converted text. Now you can edit the file and download it in your chosen format.
Free Web-Based / App
WEB-BASED: On the Google Translate site, click on the documents tab and select the original text language and the language to which you want to translate the text. Then, click Browse Your Computer, and select the PDF file that you want to process. After the upload, click Translate to translate the PDF. Once the translation is complete, you can download it. Images: Translating images works in much the same way, just chose the images tab to get started. APP: Use the camera icon within the app to translate from a photo or upload one from your camera roll. Available for Android and iOS.
Free Web-Based / App
Naver Papago’s OCR-powered Image Translation can recognize Chinese text in photos and images and translate it automatically. On the website, upload or drag in an image; in the mobile app, take or select a photo and Papago detects the text for translation. It supports Simplified and Traditional Chinese, making it useful for signs, menus, screenshots, book pages, and other Chinese text you cannot easily copy and paste. Available on the Papago website, Android and iOS.
Free / Paid Web-Based / App
Pleco’s OCR add-on lets you point your device’s camera at Chinese text or scan an image to recognize characters and look them up directly in Pleco’s dictionary. It’s especially useful for reading signs, menus, books, worksheets, and other printed Chinese without having to type unfamiliar characters. To purchase from the Pleco Store, click on "features" and then select "Optical Character Recognizer."
Paid App Add-on