pixels → type

Pull the text out of an image — as text you can actually edit

OCR finds every line, AI erases the original pixels, and the exported PSD carries real text layers — change the words, not just move the pixels.

Extract text from an image

Three different jobs hide in this search

Copy the words out (any OCR site does that), delete the text from the photo (inpainting tools do that), or the hard one: recover the text AS TEXT — editable type layers sitting over a clean background, so you can fix a typo on a poster or translate a graphic without rebuilding it. Only the third gives you a working file, and it needs OCR, inpainting, and a PSD writer working together.

How Layersmith does it

Detect text (free) runs OCR in your browser and boxes every line it finds. Then choose: Lift text only (free) creates the editable text layers and leaves the image untouched, or Lift + erase (2 credits) also removes the original pixels with one server inpainting pass, reconstructing the background behind them. The exported PSD contains genuine type objects — click one in Photoshop or Photopea and retype it.

Editor detecting four lines of text on a poster — Live editor: all four lines found on the test poster, lift options offered.

Where it shines, and its honest limits

Best on clear, roughly horizontal text with decent contrast: posters, flyers, screenshots, memes, product labels. Font matching is not attempted — recovered text arrives in a clean default face for you to restyle, because guessing fonts badly is worse than not guessing. Heavily stylized, warped, or hand-lettered type may need the manual tools instead.

Nobody else hands you type objects

Tools that "remove text" give you the background only. Tools that "extract text" give you a .txt file. The combination — editable type layers over an AI-cleaned background, in one PSD — is, as far as we can find, unique to Layersmith. It is also the feature our competitors' pixel-based "text layers" quietly are not.

Frequently asked

Are the text layers really editable type?

Yes — real PSD text objects with the recognized string, positioned where the original text was. Open the file in Photoshop or Photopea, click the layer, and retype.

Does it match the original font?

No — deliberately. It recovers position, size, and content in a clean default face; you restyle to taste. Automated font guessing produces confident wrong answers, so we do not do it.

What languages work?

The OCR handles Latin-script languages best today. Detection quality drops on dense CJK or handwriting.

Is my image uploaded?

Text detection is fully in-browser. Only the optional erase step (labeled, 2 credits) sends the affected patch to the server, which deletes it after processing.

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