Prepful
Your phone can already read the text
Built in, nothing to install. Good for copying a recipe, not for keeping one.
iPhone: Live Text. Open the photo in the Photos app, touch and hold a word, then drag the grab points over the recipe and tap Copy. Or tap the Live Text button in the corner of the photo and choose Select All. If nothing happens, turn on Live Text in Settings > General > Language & Region.
Android: Google Lens. Open the photo in Google Photos and tap Google Lens (on some phones it's under More). Tap the text, tap Select text, then Copy.
Either way you end up with a block of text in your clipboard. That's handy, but pasted into a notes app it's still just text: no shopping list, no plan, and hard to find again in a month.
| Method | Keeps the amounts | Turns into a shopping list | Easy to find later |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photo in your camera roll | Yes, if you can read it | No, you copy it out by hand | Scroll past everything else you shot |
| Copied text in a notes app | Yes | No | Search your notes, if you named it |
| Prepful | Yes, as a written ingredient list | Yes, when you plan it | Search your recipes by name |
Save it as a recipe in Prepful
Works for cookbook pages, handwritten cards, printed sheets, and screenshots.
Open Prepful, then go to Recipes > Add > Upload a Photo.
Tap Take a photo to shoot the page, or Upload an image to pick from your photos.
If the recipe runs across pages, pick up to 6 photos at once. Any order is fine.
Prepful reads the ingredients and steps, printed or handwritten. Review the recipe, then save it to your library.
On the web, Upload an image works the same way from your computer, including iPhone HEIC photos in most browsers.
Got a whole box of family recipe cards? See how to digitize old recipe cards for a plan that keeps the handwriting too.
Tips for a photo that reads well
Flat and bright. Lay the card or book flat, near a window, and shoot straight down. Shadows and curled pages are what trip it up most.
Get the whole list in. An ingredient list cut off at the edge of the frame comes through cut off too. Take a second photo instead of zooming out until it's tiny.
One recipe per import. For a two-page spread, take one photo of each page and select both. Prepful works out which part comes first and joins them into one recipe.
Screenshots work too. A long recipe from a website or a friend's text can be a few overlapping screenshots. Select them together and repeats are left out.
What Prepful keeps from a photo
Everything lands as text you can read and search.
Ingredients with amounts, and the steps in order. Recipes split into parts, like "for the sauce" and "for the dough", keep those groups.
Servings and times, when the recipe gives them. Handy for picking something quick on a weeknight.
Ingredients ready for your shopping list. Add the recipe to a day this week and its ingredients go onto your shopping list, scaled to the servings you planned.
When a photo won't come through
Three fallbacks.
Copy the text, then paste it. Use Live Text or Google Lens (above) to copy the recipe, then in Prepful go to Recipes > Add > Paste a Recipe. Prepful turns the pasted text into ingredients and steps.
Screenshot of a TikTok or Instagram post? Save the post's link instead. Prepful reads the caption, and for videos usually what's said too, which a screenshot misses. See TikTok and Instagram.
Photo of a recipe website? Paste the website's link into Recipes > Add > Import Recipe. You'll get exact amounts, and the site keeps its visit. See how to save recipes from any website.
Then actually cook it
Grandma's card does more good on a plate than in a drawer. Put it on a day this week and it joins your shopping list with everything else you planned. See how to meal plan with the recipes you've saved and how to make a grocery list from recipes.
If it doesn't work
Prepful needs an ingredient list or steps in the photo, so a picture of the finished dish alone won't import. Faded pencil, tight cursive, or a blurry shot can trip it up the same way it would trip up a person reading it cold. Retake the photo in better light, or copy the text and paste it instead.
Curious how Prepful compares to other recipe-saving apps? See Prepful vs Paprika, another app built around saving recipes from anywhere.