How iOS 15 Live Text Captures Text from Scans

Apple's iOS 15 introduced Live Text, an optical character recognition (OCR) feature integrated directly into the operating system that identifies, extracts, and digitizes printed or handwritten text from the camera viewfinder, photos, and document scans. Powered by Apple’s on-device Neural Engine, the system processes visual information locally to allow instant copying, translating, and sharing of physical text without requiring third-party scanning software.

The Underlying Technology

Live Text relies on deep learning models running on Apple's A12 Bionic chip and newer hardware. When an image or document is presented to the device, the system uses the Apple Vision framework to analyze the visual data in real time.

  1. Text Detection: The framework scans the visual field to identify regions that contain text characteristics, such as lines, curves, and specific spacing patterns, distinguishing glyphs from background textures or illustrations.
  2. Character Recognition (OCR): Once a text block is located, the Neural Engine converts the visual pixels into digital characters. This process evaluates multi-language support, font styles, and orientations—even if the document is angled, crumpled, or partially shadowed.
  3. Contextual Analysis: Beyond basic character identification, the system interprets semantic meaning. Live Text recognizes formatted data like phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, and tracking codes, converting them into actionable links alongside standard selectable text.

Because all processing occurs entirely on the device, the extraction is fast, works without an active internet connection, and ensures document privacy.

How to Capture and Copy Text from Scans

Users can extract and copy text from physical documents using multiple methods across iOS 15:

Using the Camera App

  1. Open the Camera app and point the viewfinder at the printed document.
  2. Align the camera so the text is clear. A yellow bounding box will appear around the detected text.
  3. Tap the Live Text icon (a small page with text brackets) in the bottom-right corner of the viewfinder.
  4. The camera will freeze the detected area. Select the desired text using your finger just as you would on a webpage or text document.
  5. Tap Copy from the contextual menu to place the text onto your clipboard.

Using Existing Scans or Photos

  1. Open the Photos app and select an existing photo or scan of a document.
  2. Tap the Live Text icon in the bottom-right corner, or simply tap and hold directly on the text within the image.
  3. Adjust the selection handles to highlight the exact portion of text needed.
  4. Select Copy, Look Up, Translate, or Share from the popup menu.

Inserting Scanned Text Directly into Apps

In text fields within native apps like Notes, Mail, or Messages, users can tap the cursor and select the Scan Text icon. A miniature camera view appears in place of the keyboard, reading text off the physical document and pasting it directly into the document in real time.