Copy and Paste trick

[Phil D.]

I recently discovered a neat and simple way to copy and paste text from virtually any format, even when it isn't designed to allow it.

Caveat: this works with my iPhone and MacBook, not sure if Androids and PC's or various combinations thereof have similar capabilities.

1. Take a picture with your phone of any page or document, including shots of your computer screen that is displaying text (say, from newer un-copiable books on Archive.com)
2. Transfer the photo to your computer (in my case this is set up to happen automatically).
3. Open the photo on your computer, and you can copy text directly from the picture!
4. Paste the selection into the document of your choice (I typically use WORD).

Limitations: Sometimes minor adjustments are needed in the formatting once it is pasted. And it only works with Latin lettering (so, not with other alphabetical graphemes like Greek or Hebrew...)

Of course, I only do all this within the parameters of fair-use laws...

That's it!

 

[davejonescue]

Chrome & Firefox also have the extension: Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy which also works wonders. Dont know how well it works with phones though.

 

[Deleted member 13126]

I recently discovered a neat and simple way to copy and past text from virtually any format, even when it isn't designed to allow it.

Caveat: this works with my iPhone and MacBook, not sure if Androids and PC's or various combinations thereof have similarly capabilities.

1. Take a picture with your phone of any page or document, including shots of your computer screen that is displaying text (say, from newer un-copiable books on Archive.com)
2. Transfer the photo to your computer (in my case this is set up to happen automatically).
3. Open the photo on your computer, and you can copy text directly from the picture!
4. Paste the selection into the document of your choice (I typically use WORD).

Limitations: Sometimes minor adjustments are needed in the formatting once it is pasted. And it only works with Latin lettering (so, not other alphabetical graphemes like Greek or Hebrew...)

Of course, I only do all this within the parameters of fair-use laws...

That's it!

To my knowledge it won’t work with Android or PC. Both of the devices you’re using (iPhone and Mac) are running iOS/MacOS which recently enabled a native OCR (optical content recognition) that allows for this. Still a very neat trick! I use it on my phone sometimes as well. It can still hiccup on wavy pages but overall is quite good.

 

[itsreed]

That explains

To my knowledge it won’t work with Android or PC. Both of the devices you’re using (iPhone and Mac) are running iOS/MacOS which recently enabled a native OCR (optical content recognition) that allows for this. Still a very neat trick! I use it on my phone sometimes as well. It can still hiccup on wavy pages but overall is quite good.

that explains why I can’t get it to work; the built-in OCR tool. Still, just a few more steps and it’ll work for windows based environments:

- copy text from png opened in iPad/iPhone,
- paste in email,
- send to self,
- open email in pc,
- copy/paste where needed.

 

[MyCrows]

Are we neglecting the ability to do a "print screen" on the desktop machine and skip the emailing business? Or is the text being opened in an application that blocks that function?

Seems like it might save a step.

 

[Phil D.]

Yes, it does work with screenshots as well, at least on my Mac (Command+Shift+3).

 

[AK]

Newer Android cameras have the so-called 'Bixby Vision', that can recognise text and enable copying.

 

[VictorBravo]

Are we neglecting the ability to do a "print screen" on the desktop machine and skip the emailing business? Or is the text being opened in an application that blocks that function?

Seems like it might save a step.

Yup. I've been doing this for years. Even 10 years ago I would run an image through an OCR application and get a reasonable text.

MS OneNote in the old days, and the older Evernote, both had pretty decent OCR. Useful for quotes and notes.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

The OneDrive app lets you take pics that save as PDF's It even adjusts for skew.