Recipe and OCR apps

oddduck

oddduck

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i have been trying to digitize some recipes so i can have them on my ipad. So i have tried some recipe cataloging apps and found a few that work fairly well but not perfect for my needs. Anyone have suggestions?

The other kind of app i am using is an OCR app that translates the photo of the recipe into real editable text. This i am having problems with. None have worked perfect and the one i found that works the best is not written in english tho it recognizes english fine but trying to find the controls to copy and paste is an adventure as the language it is written in is Asian but i don't even know which asian language it is. Anybody use a OCR app for the ipad that works decently?
 
I tend to just cut and paste if I'm copying from a website - if it in a foreign language I use Google translate, which is less than perfect and sometimes throws up very amusing results.

oddduck said:
an OCR app that translates the photo of the recipe into real editable text
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I've not come across that - when you say a photo, do you mean a photo from a recipe book?

So sorry, I can't be much help.
 
Yes you take a photo with your phone or tablet camera of any printed text and the ocr app looks it over and translates it into live text that can be edited as needed. It saves so much time typing as i am a slow typist.
 
oddduck said:
Yes you take a photo with your phone or tablet camera of any printed text and the ocr app looks it over and translates it into live text that can be edited as needed. It saves so much time typing as i am a slow typist.
Click to expand...

Oh, I see. Sometimes, if I want to post a retro recipe here on the forum I simply take a photo of the recipe from the book and upload it here.
 
I am looking to catelog my favorite recipes on my ipad so i can have them right in one place instead of scattered in a bunch of cookbooks and if the text is editable i can have all my variations of the recipe too.
 
oddduck said:
i have been trying to digitize some recipes so i can have them on my ipad. So i have tried some recipe cataloging apps and found a few that work fairly well but not perfect for my needs. Anyone have suggestions?

The other kind of app i am using is an OCR app that translates the photo of the recipe into real editable text. This i am having problems with. None have worked perfect and the one i found that works the best is not written in english tho it recognizes english fine but trying to find the controls to copy and paste is an adventure as the language it is written in is Asian but i don't even know which asian language it is. Anybody use a OCR app for the ipad that works decently?
Click to expand...

I use paprika 3 recipe manager. It is cloud-based so all of your recipes are backed up and you can put the app on several devices and the cloud will sync all your recipes between them. you can download recipes off the internet with its built-in browser. It will form at them very nicely for you.
I believe there's a free version you can try out first but the paid version is cheap and worth every penny.
I was trying to figure out how to take pictures of my cookbook recipes and use OCR and put them into that app. Here is what I found:
  1. With regards to image-based PDFs and scans of recipes from cookbooks, some users make use of Google Drive/Docs free image-to-text conversion capabilities to convert the files to text, and then open the Google Doc in Paprika's browser and use the clipboard tools to manually clip the recipe into the app.
 
Foodie4lyfe said:
I use paprika 3 recipe manager. It is cloud-based so all of your recipes are backed up and you can put the app on several devices and the cloud will sync all your recipes between them. you can download recipes off the internet with its built-in browser. It will form at them very nicely for you.
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I'll second Paprika Recipe Manager. I use it on my Windows computer to get recipes from the web, even from this forum. It formats them very nicely. It will also let you specify that you wish to increase or decrease the yield and it will adjust quantities for you. It has a menu planner, which if you have kids like I do, can be a big help. Also, it will generate shopping lists based on the recipes you want to buy for. You can add your own items to the list as well. When an item is added to the list Paprika guess which aisle it's in. It's pretty good at guessing and if it gets it wrong you can change it. You can also sort the aisles to match your store, at least on the Android version which is at version 3. Windows version is currently 2.

Here's how it all works for me: Windows computer to get recipes and generate shopping list. I have the paid version for Windows and Android so all this info syncs to my phone and tablet. When I'm shopping, my list is on my phone which is automatic, and convenient. Once home and I'm ready to cook I'll mount my tablet in my kitchen, on the wall in a hanger, in order to read my recipes as I cook.

Note: I'm really not affiliated with the makers of this software in anyway. I've tried Mastercook and a couple of others and this just works for me. Planning, shopping and cooking.

Edit: One thing I *really* like is that there is no recurring monthly or yearly charge. The recipes are stored on your devices so even if you have no internet you still have your recipes. Internet *is* required to sync your computer to your phone or tablet. Importing from other recipe managers is pretty easy as well. As always, back up your files before any major imports...
 
oddduck said:
Yes you take a photo with your phone or tablet camera of any printed text and the ocr app looks it over and translates it into live text that can be edited as needed. It saves so much time typing as i am a slow typist.
Click to expand...

I can't remember the name of the app I used but I took photos of some of my mother in law's recipes and the app translated them to text in English. It saved a lot of typing and translating..
 
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