Thanks to macOS Monterey, you can finally scan and copy text from photos on your Mac. The next time you want to save some time at school or quickly copy phone numbers from a business card, selecting and copying text from images will help you out a lot. Here's how to do it.

In addition to a super-fast way to translate text, macOS Monterey also lets you select text in images. This feature is called Live Text, and it’s also available on iPhones and iPads running iOS 15. The next time you see text in an image on your Mac, just drag your mouse pointer over it and the cursor will change from an arrow to a selection tool. You can then click and drag your cursor over the text to select it.

Once the text is selected, you can right-click (or use the keyboard shortcut Control + click) to open the context menu. Here you can decide whether to copy the text, translate it, or quickly use the Look Up tool to find more information about the selected text. If you see the name of a well-known destination, such as Niagara Falls, in an image, Look Up will show you the Wikipedia entry. Similarly, looking up an address in Apple Maps will bring up a floating window with the location.

Live Text generally works flawlessly, but right now it only works in Safari, Photos, the built-in screenshot tool, and Quick Look (the preview tool that lets you preview images and documents by pressing the space bar).