Can Capture2Text Do Batch OCR?
No — and that’s by design. Capture2Text is a screen-capture OCR tool: you press Win+Q, drag a box around the text on your screen, and the recognized text lands on your clipboard. One capture at a time, every time. There is no folder queue, no multi-file mode, no “process these 200 images overnight” button. That’s not a missing feature; it’s a different job description.
If you have a handful of things on your screen right now, Capture2Text is the fastest free way to grab their text. If you have a folder of images or scans, you want a batch OCR tool. Two genuinely good free ones:
The Free Tools That Do Batch OCR
| Tool | What it is | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Umi-OCR | Free, open-source, offline OCR for Windows and Linux (MIT license) | Built for batch: processes hundreds of images at once, no quantity limits; also turns scanned documents into searchable PDFs. |
| VietOCR | Free, open-source Tesseract GUI for Windows and Linux (Apache 2.0) | Offers bulk & batch operations on image files, plus drag-and-drop and scanner support. A lighter alternative if Umi-OCR feels like overkill. |
Both are made by independent developers and both are free with no catch — we’re recommending them because they’re honestly good at the job Capture2Text doesn’t do.
Which One for Your Situation?
| Your situation | Best choice |
|---|---|
| A few bits of text on your screen, right now | Capture2Text — seconds per capture, nothing to set up |
| A folder of screenshots or scans to convert | Umi-OCR — point it at the folder and walk away |
| Occasional image files, simple workflow | VietOCR — drag, drop, recognize |
| A whole scanned document that must stay a PDF | Umi-OCR’s document mode — produces a searchable PDF with the original layout |
For the “a few pages of a scanned PDF” middle ground, see our guide on extracting text from scanned PDFs.
FAQs
Is there really no batch mode hidden in the settings?
Correct — no batch mode in the GUI or the command-line interface. Every capture starts with you drawing a box on the screen.
Is there a paid “pro” version of Capture2Text with batch OCR?
No. There is no paid version of Capture2Text at all — it’s free, open-source software (GPLv3). If a site tries to sell you one, walk away.
Can Capture2Text at least process a folder of screenshots one by one?
Not automatically. It reads from your screen, not from files, so each image would need to be opened and captured manually. For folders, use a batch tool like Umi-OCR.
Are Umi-OCR and VietOCR really free?
Yes. Umi-OCR is MIT-licensed and VietOCR is Apache 2.0-licensed — both free and open source, and both work fully offline.