The short answer
Lay the card on a dark, flat surface near a window, hold your phone directly above it, tap the text to focus, and zoom into the photo to check it's sharp. From there, keep the photo as it is, type the recipe into a notes app, or use a recipe app that transcribes the photo into a recipe, and check the text against the card. Try one card all the way through before you do the whole box.
Step-by-step
- 1
Find soft daylight
Natural daylight near a window works best, and overcast daylight is ideal because it's soft and even. Turn the camera flash off; it creates glare, especially on glossy or laminated cards.
- 2
Place the card on a flat, contrasting surface
A dark table or a sheet of dark paper makes the card's edges easy to see. Flatten curled edges with a light object at each corner.
- 3
Hold your phone flat above the card
Hold the phone parallel to the card rather than at an angle, so the text doesn't come out wedge-shaped. On an iPhone, turn on Settings → Camera → Grid and Level: when you point the camera straight down, two small crosshairs appear and turn yellow once they line up and the phone is flat. Fill most of the frame with the card but leave a little margin, so pencil notes and "double this!" at the edges aren't cut off.
- 4
Tap to focus, then check sharpness
Tap the card on the screen to lock focus on the text. Take the shot, then zoom into the photo to confirm every word is sharp, and retake it if anything is blurry.
- 5
Decide whether you need typed text
A clear photo is already a usable copy. A scanner app can straighten and crop it into a cleaner image, typing it into your phone's notes app costs nothing, and a recipe app that reads photos saves the typing. In Culinary Card, tap Add recipe, open the Photo tab, choose the photo and import; if you know whose recipe it is, put that in the Source field under Optional settings first.
- 6
Check the text against the card
Whichever way you transcribe, unusual ingredient names, abbreviations and faded words cause most of the errors. Compare those against the photo and fix anything that looks off.
Common mistakes to avoid
- ✕
Photographing the whole box before checking one
Doing all the photos first and all the importing afterward feels efficient, but you won't find out until the end that a particular hand, or pencil on yellowed card, needed more light than you gave it. Run one card all the way through first, see what came back, then do the rest.
- ✕
Expecting two recipes on one card to arrive as two
Plenty of index cards have a main dish on the front and a frosting or sauce squeezed onto the back or a bottom corner. An import treats one photo as one recipe, so the second one tends to end up folded into the notes. Photograph them separately if you want them as separate recipes.
- ✕
Shooting through a plastic sleeve or album page
Recipe cards often live in a binder sleeve or a photo album, and it's tempting to leave them there. The plastic reflects the ceiling light and you, in spots that are hard to see on a phone screen, so it's worth sliding the card out for the half minute it takes.
Why Culinary Card works for this
Culinary Card reads printed and handwritten recipe cards from a phone photo and turns them into a recipe with a title, ingredients, instructions and notes. If you want the wording left exactly as written, switch on Keep exactly as I entered it under Optional settings before you import.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work with very old, yellowed cards?
Yes, as long as the text is still legible. Yellowed paper isn't a problem by itself; what matters is the contrast between the writing and the card, so faint pencil benefits most from good daylight and a sharp photo.
What about cards with writing on both sides?
Photograph both sides. If the back continues the same recipe, import the front and add what's on the back during the review, or in Culinary Card type it into the Add a description box under Optional settings before you import.
Does it work on printed recipe cards, not just handwritten ones?
Yes. Printed text (clipped recipes, magazine cuttings, printed index cards) is easier to read than handwriting and transcribes very accurately.
How many credits does it use in Culinary Card?
Each photo import uses 2 credits, and you get 9 free credits on signup. A $10/year plan gives you 100 credits, and unused ones roll over (up to 500).