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How to Copy an Address from an Image on Mac

By Eduard Bruch, developer of Optic · Updated

To copy an address from an image on a Mac, open the image in Preview or Photos and select the text with Live Text, or drag over it with a screen OCR app if it sits in another app. Either way, paste it and check every digit before you send anything.

Short answer: try Live Text first for photos and scans you have as files. When the image is inside Mail, Slack or a web page, my pick is Optic, a menu bar app that copies the text in any area you drag across the screen ($4.99, a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store).

Disclosure: I build Optic.

Why addresses are worth not retyping

An address mixes street names, house and unit numbers, abbreviations and postal codes. Swap two digits in a postcode and a parcel goes astray. Retyping is where those mistakes happen, and they are hard to spot when you read the result back. Copying the text from the image keeps the original spelling and numbers.

Option 1: Live Text

macOS Live Text works where Apple supports it: images in Preview, Photos, Quick Look and Safari. It does not work on arbitrary app windows, video calls or UI text.

  1. Open the photo or scan in Preview or Photos.
  2. Move the pointer over the address; if it changes to a text cursor, select the lines.
  3. Copy with Command-C and paste where you need it.

For a photo of a business card in your library, this is often all you need.

Option 2: copy from any app with Optic

Addresses also show up in places that are not image files on your Mac: an image attached in Mail, a screenshot in Slack, a map pin in a web app, a shipping label in a browser tab, a PDF in a viewer that has no text layer. Optic reads whatever is on screen.

  1. Show the image with the address on screen.
  2. Click the Optic icon in the menu bar and choose Capture Text.
  3. Drag a box around the address block.
  4. Paste with Command-V into Maps, Contacts, a shipping form or an email.

Optic recognizes the text with Apple's Vision framework on the Mac, without an internet connection. The app has no network access, which is good to know when the image contains a customer's or a friend's home address.

Getting the line breaks right

Addresses are short multi-line blocks, and where they go decides how you want the lines:

  • Preserve (default) keeps each line as it is: street, city, country. Good for a letter or a contact card.
  • Remove puts it all on one line. Good for a search field in a maps app.
  • Smart merge joins wrapped lines but keeps sentence ends.

You can switch between these in Optic's Settings.

Typical cases

  • Business cards. Copy the address, phone number and email from a card photo into a contact, one block at a time.
  • Returns and shipping. Copy the return address from a label image into a courier's form.
  • Letters and invoices. Pull the sender's address from a scanned letter open in Preview.
  • Foreign addresses. Optic recognizes 21 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian, Thai and Vietnamese, so the address stays in its original script. See OCR foreign language text on Mac.

Each capture also goes into the menu bar history (the last 20), so you can copy the address again later without finding the image.

Always check before you send

OCR on a clear image is reliable, but no OCR is perfect. Small print, glare on a photographed label or an unusual font can turn a 0 into an O or a 1 into an l. Compare the postcode and house number against the image before you book a delivery.

The same steps work for other short values you would otherwise retype: see copy a serial number from an image, and OCR receipts on Mac for totals and dates.

Where Optic does not fit

  • No file import. Optic does not open image or PDF files; show them on screen first.
  • Handwriting. A handwritten address on an envelope is not something Optic promises to read.
  • No camera scanning. For a paper card in your hand, take a photo first, or use your iPhone.
  • No structured fields. It copies text; it does not split an address into street, city and postcode fields for you.

FAQ

How do I copy text from a picture of a business card on Mac?

Open the photo in Preview or Photos and select the text with Live Text, or drag over it with a screen OCR app like Optic, then paste it into Contacts.

Can I copy an address from an image in an email?

Yes. With Optic you can capture it straight from the Mail window without saving the attachment first.

Can I paste the address on one line?

Yes. Set Line breaks to Remove in Optic's Settings and the captured lines are joined into one.

Does Optic read handwritten addresses?

Handwriting is not a feature of Optic, so do not rely on it for handwritten envelopes.

Get Optic on the Mac App Store · All Optic facts. Optic needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later. More in copy text from an image on Mac.