TLDR;
This video provides a tutorial on how to use Apple Notes for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on various Apple devices. It covers extracting text from images, PDFs, iOS scans, and digital handwriting, offering methods for both iOS and macOS. The video highlights the ease of OCR for photos and PDFs but also addresses the challenges and workarounds for scans and digital handwriting, especially on macOS.
- Extracting text from images, PDFs, iOS scans, and digital handwriting
- Methods for both iOS and macOS
- Challenges and workarounds for scans and digital handwriting
Introduction [0:00]
The video introduces a tutorial on using Apple Notes for OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to copy and paste text from various sources like paper, tablets, scanned documents, and books into notes on iPhone, iPad, or macOS. The focus is on extracting text from images rather than scanning documents and the tutorial is based on iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26.
Four types of Notes you can use OCR with on MacOS and iOS [0:05]
The video outlines four types of OCR applications within Apple Notes, ordered from easiest to most challenging. These include extracting text from photos of textbooks or handwritten notes, grabbing text from PDFs, using the scan function in Apple Notes on iPhone or iPad to adjust orientation and exposure, and dealing with digital handwritten notes, which are noted as the most difficult to OCR, especially on macOS.
OCR of images of text in books or physical handwriting [1:31]
The process of extracting text from images, such as textbook photos, is straightforward on both iPhone and iPad. Users can directly access the "copy all text" option within the Photos app to copy and paste text into notes. On a Mac, users can paste the image into a note, use "quick look attachment," and then copy the text. The same method applies to handwritten notes: take a photo, use the copy text function on iOS, or use quick look attachment on macOS to copy the text into Apple Notes.
OCR text from PDFs [3:04]
Extracting text from PDFs is very simple. Users can embed a PDF into a note and then open it to double-click, highlight, copy, and paste text into the note on both iPhone and Mac. The process is similar on both platforms, involving opening the PDF within Apple Notes and using standard copy-paste functions.
OCR text from iOS scans [3:30]
Extracting text from scans on iOS requires a workaround: sharing the scan and printing it, then holding down on the image to generate a PDF, from which text can be copied. On macOS, users can open the scan, use "quick look attachment," and then copy the text. The presenter seeks alternative methods for iOS, as the printing workaround is not ideal.
OCR of digital handwriting from Apple pencil [4:52]
For digital handwriting on iPhone and iPad, users can directly highlight the handwritten text, right-click, and select "copy as text" to paste it into the note. However, on macOS, this direct selection isn't possible. The workaround involves taking a screenshot of the handwriting using Command-Shift-4, saving it to the desktop, opening the image in Preview, and then copying the text from there. The presenter is also seeking better methods for handling digital handwriting OCR on macOS.