Use Live Text to Copy or Translate Text in a Photo

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In this video, we’re going to look at how we can use live text to copy or even translate text within a photo in the Photos app on the iPad. Let’s go to my iPad. So I’m looking at my photos here, and I have some text in these photos. Let’s first look at how we can copy text within a photo. What I’m going to do is go over to this photo of a recipe, what I would like to do is I would like to copy this text within this recipe. Well introduced in iPad os 15, is we can select any text that is in a photo, and then we can copy it and we can paste it into a note as an example.

0:43
To do that, all I have to do is just go and select the text. Now I do have a keyboard, but I’m going to show you how you do this without a keyboard, really, all I have to do is just place my finger on top of any of the text, and you’re going to see it now selected it. I can also use the trackpad on my keyboard to select the text. So now all I need to do is just drag this and I can select that text. Once I have it selected, what I can do is I can copy it. So now I’m going to copy it. Let’s go into my notes app. And I want to paste this into a new note. Now I just paste. And there is my recipe. I copied that from a photograph. Let’s go back over to my photos app. You’re going to see I have this picture of a Harley Davidson.

1:41
Let’s go and see if it can recognize this lettering here. Again, all I have to do is just move my cursor over top of the text. I’m using my trackpad this time, and you’re gonna see that it is changing. It is now an I beam, which means that it recognized that text. So now all I have to do is just double click on it. And we can see it’s a little bit darker there. I could copy this and paste it into a note. What about translation, we can use this to translate text as well. Let’s go back over to my photos. I have here, this box from some microphones that I bought, I would like to read this text. Well, all I have to do is just select it. And once I select it, what I’m able to do is translate it. And when I click on translate, we can see it says this battery can work for up to seven hours on fully charged. The photos app or the iPad, I should say translated that text that was in a photo.

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So that’s how we can use photos to recognize text. All we have to do is just long press on the text. Or if we have a trackpad, we can select it just like we can add a Mac. Once we select that text, what we’re able to do is copy it then we can paste it into another app. We can also use it to translate text, just select the text that you want to translate. And in the little menu that pops up, tap on translate. And then from there, you’re going to be able to read what it says the iPad will translate it for you. So that’s how we can use photos to recognize text and then selected or translated on the iPad.