Google adding PDF image-to-text converter to ChromeOS
Google is working on an image-to-text converter in its Chrome browser for ChromeOS users that will let the browser’s screen reader convert images to text for PDFs and read the text aloud.
The new feature will use optical character recognition technology to convert images in PDFs into text that screen readers can read.
The company says the feature will expand accessibility for the visually impaired and those with other disabilities and notes that more than 360 billion PDFs are inaccessible to users who have disabilities and rely on screen readers.
“This means that when a screen reader user comes across a PDF that does not have alt text, the screen reader will be able to convert the image to text and read it aloud,” said Google.
The company is also expanding access to the Chrome browser’s Reading Mode, which it launched for ChromeOS in March 2023.
The feature incorporates a side panel into the document viewer that lets users make text larger, change fonts and remove distractions.
Reading Mode is currently only available to Chromebook users, but Google said it would now expand to Chrome on all PCs.
Google’s image-to-text converter is still in development, and the company hasn’t announced a release date yet.
However, Google said image-to-text conversion in Chrome on ChromeOS and Reading Mode for Chrome on all PCs would roll out in “the coming months”.
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