How to Digitize Handwritten Recipe Cards and Old Cookbooks

Why it's worth doing now

A recipe box is one kitchen fire, flood or house move away from being gone. Cards fade, grease spots spread, and the person whose handwriting you're reading may not be around to ask. A digital copy also means you can open grandma's lasagne at the supermarket, or send it to a cousin.

Step 1: keep the original as a photo

Before anything else, photograph every card front and back in good daylight, flat on a table. Use your phone's built-in document scanner (in the Notes app on iPhone, or Google Drive on Android) if you want straight edges.

These photos are your archive. Even if a recipe gets transcribed wrong later, the original handwriting is safe.

Step 2: turn each card into a real recipe

A photo of a card can't be searched or added to a shopping list. For that, the text needs to become ingredients and steps.

In CookFlic, tap "Add recipe", choose the photo option, and take a picture of the card or cookbook page (or pick one from your photos). CookFlic reads printed text and most clear handwriting, splits it into ingredients and numbered steps, and keeps the photo with the recipe. Each photo import uses one flic: 3 are included every week on the free plan, 10 on the subscription.

One photo makes one recipe, so if a recipe runs over two pages, photograph the page with the ingredients and type the rest in. For faded or very loose handwriting, it's often quicker to type the recipe yourself using "Type it in", which is free and needs no account.

Step 3: fill in what the card leaves out

Old cards assume a lot: "a cup of flour" in someone's own cup, "bake until done", "moderate oven". While the recipe is open, add what you know: the oven temperature, the tin size, how many it serves. Put the family story in the notes. Future you will be glad.

Step 4: organize and share

Make a cookbook called "Family recipes" and add every card to it. Each recipe can be shared as a link that opens in any browser, so relatives without the app can read it, and anyone with CookFlic can save it in one tap.

Have a PDF or a Paprika library?

If the family recipes already live in a PDF (a self-made cookbook, a printed collection), CookFlic can import recipes from text-based PDFs. Scanned image-only PDFs aren't supported yet; photograph those pages instead. If you used Paprika, CookFlic imports your Paprika export file for free.

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