Scanning in business cards

By Steven, 18 March, 2025

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Having just returned from CSUN I have a stack, and I mean a proper stack, of business cards. I am trying to find a quick way to scan and have the results imported into ideally a Google Sheet. I tried a couple of apps but I have had issues lining up the camera with the card. Just ordered a business card scanner from Amazon to see if that helps speed things up but in the meantime I wondered if anyone had got a solution for this. I'm using Mac but also iPhone for scanning mostly. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Steven.

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Comments

By Levi Gobin on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 22:41

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Have it give you the text, and then copy/paste it to a preferred place.
Seeing AI has the ability to scan multiple pages, but don't know if it will work with business cards.

By OldBear on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 22:41

That scanner is probably your best bet. I use a regular sized one with my main computer to extract the information, and in some cases, make photo copies of cards.
As far as the iPhone, you mostly need something to support and align the phone, and it can be a pain... I have a regular cardboard box with a square hole cut in the side for closeup pictures, and also a few different tripods and clamps. And you're going to bump things and have to make sure it's still aligned, etc.
The native Notes app will scan to a PDF. Seeing AI will scan and extract information that can be saved, and I seem to remember there being a multi-page capability. I know of nothing that will make it all automated without a bunch of cutting and pasting and cleanup.

By Brian on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 22:41

You can indeed scan and save multiple pages into an accessible document for later viewing with Seeing AI. If you have Siri shortcuts setup for Seeing AI, you can start by saying, "Hey Siri, recognize document".

It is fairly straight-forward, though that will depend on your ability to line your camera up with a document, or business card in this case.
Best of luck. 🙂

By SeasonKing on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 22:41

I know he is under no obligation to reveal himself. But, big fan of doubletap podcast. And since those guys were also at Csun last week. But, I guess there are lot of people, possible multiple blind people named Steven.
Any ways, just to stick on topic, I think best bet is Seeing AI, or, perhaps, even IOS's built-in document scanner. I remember my Android has a builtin card scanner in it's camera app. It even recognizes any VCards stored in QR codes and automatically offers to save them in my contacts. Speaking of which, chances are many of them will have QR Codes, which can be scanned using IOS's default QR Code scanner, it shows up in my Control center as a shortcut.