Convert handwritten / typed / printed pages into text for free with AI
If you have an old diary or other historic document you want to share online, you know that typing up a text copy can be very time-consuming. Free AI tools may be able to help.
I recently tried using AI to extract the text from several old documents, and I’m impressed with the results. The image below shows a handwritten page from Mr A N Braudé’s wartime diary, and the text version that the AI created.
The AI only got six letters wrong out of the whole page, so even including the time it took me to correct the mistakes it was still much faster than typing up the page manually.
I’ve recorded a short video that shows how to use AI to extract text from a variety of documents, including newspaper clippings, printed pages, and handwritten notes. I also cover some of the problems I encountered, and give suggested workarounds. Click here to watch the video on YouTube.
Or if you’d like to try it straight away on one of your documents, follow these steps: