Import from a photo

Turn a screenshot or a photo of a printed recipe into a recipe you can edit.

Photo import reads the text in a picture and sorts it into ingredients and steps. It’s in beta, so expect to fix a few things before you save.

Import from a photo

1. Choose + New recipe, then From photo.
2. Choose a photo. If the recipe spans two pages, you can add a second one.
3. Crop each photo to just the recipe, rotate it if it’s sideways, and choose Use this crop.
4. Choose Scan. Reading the text takes a few seconds per photo.
5. Check the recipe in the review form. Words the scan wasn’t sure about are highlighted.
6. Choose Save recipe.

The text is read on your own device first. If that reading comes out poor, the photo is also sent to Google Cloud Vision for a second try. See the privacy policy for details.

What works best

1. Screenshots of a recipe on a screen. The text is sharp and straight, so these read best.
2. Printed recipes, like a cookbook page or a printed card, photographed flat, straight on and in good light.

Cropping matters more than anything else. Cut out food photos, backgrounds and other cards, so only the recipe text is left.

Handwritten cards

Handwriting is hit and miss. Neat, clear writing often reads well enough to save you some typing, so it’s worth a try. Check the review form closely, since handwriting is where the scan makes the most mistakes.

When a card can’t be read at all, Platefolio says so rather than fill the form with guesses. For those, type it in with From text (see Import from pasted text) or the recipe form.

Still stuck? Tell us what happened and we'll help.