Importing from Photo or Camera

Have a recipe on a handwritten card, in a cookbook, or in a screenshot? Marinaid can read it using your device’s camera or photo library.

How to import from a photo

1. Open Marinaid and tap the + button.
2. Tap Import from Photo.
3. Choose one of the following:
   • Take a photo — point your camera at a recipe card, cookbook page, or printed recipe and snap a picture.
   • Choose from library — select an existing photo or screenshot from your photo library.
4. Marinaid uses on-device OCR to read the text and organize it into a structured recipe.
5. Review the result and tap Save.

What gets extracted

Marinaid reads all visible text in the photo and looks for common recipe patterns:

• Title — usually the largest or first line of text
• Ingredients — lines with quantities and units
• Instructions — numbered steps or paragraphs

Better results on iOS 27 Requires iOS 27

If you’re on iOS 27 with an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, Marinaid reads the photo itself rather than a flattened transcription of the text in it — so the recipe’s layout survives the import:

• Two-column cookbook pages are read column by column, not straight across.
• Group headings like “For the sauce” become separate ingredient sections.
• Handwriting is read in context, which handles loops and shorthand better.

There’s nothing to switch on. Marinaid uses this automatically when your device supports it, and falls back to standard text recognition when it doesn’t — the steps below are the same either way.

Tips for best results

• Good lighting matters. Make sure the recipe text is well-lit and in focus before taking a photo.
• Capture the full recipe. Include the title, ingredients, and instructions in a single photo if possible. If the recipe spans two pages, take a photo of each and import them separately, then merge by editing.
• Flat and straight. Lay the recipe card or cookbook flat to avoid warping and shadows that make text harder to read.
• Screenshots work great. If you see a recipe on a website or in an app that won’t import via URL, take a screenshot and import it as a photo.
• Handwriting works too. Marinaid can read most handwritten recipes, though neat handwriting produces the best results.

When to use photo import

• Recipe cards — grandmother’s handwritten recipes, index cards, printed cards
• Cookbook pages — snap a photo instead of typing out the whole recipe
• Screenshots — recipes from apps that don’t support the share sheet, or images shared in messages
• Magazine clippings — recipes torn out of magazines or printed from the web

After import

You’ll see a preview of the parsed recipe before saving. You can edit the title, ingredients, instructions, and any other fields before tapping Save.

Tip

If the OCR doesn’t perfectly separate ingredients from instructions, don’t worry — you can easily move text between fields while editing.

Related articles

Importing Recipes from BrowserImport recipes by pasting a URL or sharing from Safari.

Importing from TextPaste recipe text from Apple Notes, OneNote, or any other source.

Speak a RecipeRecord yourself describing a recipe out loud and let Marinaid write it down.

Import TroubleshootingWhat to do when a recipe import fails or produces incomplete results.