Grab & Edit Text

Snagit uses optical character recognition (OCR) to detect text in images and convert to editable text.

3d Snagit icon

In this tutorial:

Grab Text When You Capture

Capture text from anywhere on the screen to paste into a document or another application.

  1. In the Capture window, click to select the Image tab.
    Image tab on the Capture window
  2. In the Selection dropdown, select Grab Text.
    Grab Text selection option
  3. Click the Capture button or press Print Screen (Windows) or Shift+Ctrl+C (Mac).
    Capture button
  4. The orange crosshairs appear. Click and drag to select the desired area on the screen.
    Grab Text selection
  5. The Grab Text Results dialog opens in Snagit Editor. Click Copy All and paste text into another application.

Note: To turn off Grab Text for future captures, change the Selection option in the Capture window.

Grab Text from an Image

Copy and paste text from an image into a text editor such as Notepad, Microsoft Word, or an email. Snagit offers two options for copying the text in an image:

Grab All Text in an Image

  1. In Snagit Editor, right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac) an image on the Canvas and select Grab Text.
    Grab text context menu on Windows Grab text context menu on Mac
  2. In the Grab Text Results dialog, click Copy All.
    Grab text results dialog

    Note: On Mac, enable the Make Plain Text option to remove the formatting before copying the text if desired.
    Plain text copy option on Mac

Snagit copies the text to the Clipboard for pasting into a document or other application.

Grab Text from Part of an Image

This option captures smaller areas of text within an image to improve the accuracy and quality of the text recognition.

  1. In Snagit Editor, click the Selection tool.
    Selection tool

    Note: If the tool is not visible in the toolbar, click the More dropdown. To customize your toolbar, see Customize the Snagit Toolbar.

  2. Click and drag to select the text.
    Grab text selection example
  3. Right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac) the selection and select Grab Text.
  4. In the Grab Text Results dialog, click Copy All.
    Grab text results dialog

    Note: On Mac, enable the Make Plain Text option to remove the formatting before copying the text if desired.
    Plain text copy option on Mac

Snagit copies the text to the Clipboard for pasting into a document or other application.

Edit Text in an Image

Replace or edit the text in an image to fix typos, update text, or change formatting such as font, size, or color.

Note: This tutorial describes how to edit text that is already in an image. To add text to an image or to edit text you added to an image, select the Text tool from the toolbar. See Text tool.

  1. In Snagit Editor, click the Selection tool.
    Selection tool

    Note: If the tool is not visible in the toolbar, click the More dropdown. To customize your toolbar, see Customize the Snagit Toolbar.

  2. Click and drag to select the text.
    Grab text selection example
  3. Right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac) the selection and select Edit Text.
  4. Click the text to display the floating menu and make edits to the text.
    Text editing options menu on Windows
    Text editing options menu on Mac

Grab Text from a Video (Mac)

Grab text from a video to copy and paste into other applications.

  1. In Snagit Editor, play back a video capture.
  2. Click the Pause button.
  3. Control+click the Canvas and select Grab Text.
  4. In the Grab Text Results dialog, edit the text (optional).
  5. Click Copy All and paste the text into another application.

Note: This tutorial is for Snagit version 2024. Previous versions may look or function differently.