How to convert a photo of a table to Excel

Some tables only exist on paper — a printed stock count, a supplier's price list, a sign-in sheet on a clipboard. Typing them into Excel row by row is tedious. If you photograph the table instead, OCR can read the text and rebuild the rows and columns for you.

This guide uses TemaSel, a Windows app from TemaLab that converts tables in photos, scans and PDFs to Excel. It runs on your PC — your photos are never uploaded. The same steps work for JPG and PNG files, including screenshots.

1. Take a photo that reads cleanly

The photo makes the biggest difference to the result. Four things matter most:

• Shoot from straight above. An angled shot distorts the table and shifts columns. A slight tilt is straightened automatically.
• Get the whole table in frame, with only a little margin around it.
• Use even light with no shadows. Keep your phone's shadow and lamp glare off the text.
• Move closer for small print. If the table doesn't fit in one shot at a readable size, take it in two halves.

If you have a scanner, a 300 dpi scan is even more reliable than a photo.

2. Move the photos to your PC and read them

Copy the photos (JPG or PNG) to your PC and drag them into TemaSel — or drag in the whole folder. If the table is in English, check that Settings > Document language is set to English (or Automatic with the app in English). Then click Read all.

3. Compare with the photo and fix

Click Review. The photo is on the left, already straightened, with a blue frame around the table; the extracted table is on the right. The header line shows how much the photo was straightened.

• Red cells were read with low confidence. Check them against the photo first.
• Double-click a cell (or press Enter) to correct it.
• Split column… and Merge right fix columns that ran together or broke apart; Merge down joins a row that wrapped onto two lines.
• Undo and Redo (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y) are always available, and edited cells are highlighted.

4. Export to Excel, or paste into an existing sheet

To create a new workbook, choose Excel (xlsx) on the right and click Export this file. Quantities like “1,949” become numbers you can calculate with, and codes with leading zeros stay as text. Month-first dates such as “10/10/2026” are kept as text exactly as written; to turn them into real dates, use Data > Text to Columns in Excel and choose Date: MDY.

To add the rows to a sheet you already have, click Copy table in Review & fix, then select a cell in Excel and paste. The cells stay separate.

The free version exports and copies up to 3 pages with tables at a time, with no watermark — plenty for a few photos. The full version removes the limit.

5. Tables that won't read well

• Handwriting can't be read — only printed text.
• Vertical text in cells can't be read.
• Photos rotated 90° aren't turned automatically. Rotate the image first (for example in the Windows Photos app).
• Steep angles or curled pages can break the table. Flatten the page and reshoot from above.
• Tables without ruling lines work, but a cell spanning two lines may split into two rows; use Merge down.

Published: October 27, 2026 · TemaLab