Project Naptha is an intuitive extension for Chrome that allows you to copy and paste text directly from any image while browsing the web. Thanks to our friend +Tony Bostony for giving us the heads up on this very useful extension.
As stated on the their website, Project Naptha
automatically applies state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms on every image you see while browsing the web.
The result is an almost uncanny ability to scrape text out of any image you please. It will even let you change text on an image in real-time to allow you a preview of an image with your own edited text. Which, honestly, is just shy of incredible.
This extension requires a lot of permissions and understandably so. It allows you to copy text from any image you see in your web browser. Since Project Naptha runs in the background all the time without the need to actually “launch” the app, it makes sense that it needs a broad access to your files.
Project Naptha operates a very low level, it’s actually ideally the kind of functionality that gets built in to browsers and operating systems natively. In order to allow you to highlight and interact with images everywhere, it needs the ability to read images located everywhere.
Project Naptha’s website is designed to be a live demo for their product. As you move your mouse around the different images you will see your cursor change to the I-beam just as if you are in a document. Anytime you see this you are able to scrape and copy the text you see.
The application isn’t perfect by any means. It does struggle to translate some pages to text depending on the font, text placement, rotation etc, etc. But, these guys go into great depth explainining the science behind their creation and are very forward about what its capabilities are and are not. We appreciate that.
All in all, Project Naptha is a very impressive add-on tool that has endless uses. From website editing, to publication creation, to just sitting around the house making the next big internet meme, this app is definitely a must have in my humble opinion. And, since it’s free, I can see no reason not to give it a try.
You can read all about Project Naptha by clicking the link below.
Project Naptha: Highlight, copy, and translate text from any image.
You can also grab the download straight from the Chrome Web Store.