Turn a recipe card, screenshot or PDF page into a recipe you can cook from

The short answer

Take a clear, flat, well-lit photo, or choose the exact PDF page you need, and bring it into Orzella. Then read the draft against the original, paying close attention to quantities, units and temperatures. Fix anything unclear before you tap Save recipe. Add your family's tweaks as edits or notes. If the original card matters to you, keep the image somewhere safe as well. Orzella works with readable photos, but it cannot promise to read every handwriting style.

Before you take the photo

• Lay the card flat and shoot from directly above, so the lines do not bend.
• Use soft, even light. Window light beats a flash, which can wash out faded pencil.
• Fill the frame with the recipe, but keep every edge in shot. Notes in the margin count.
• If the recipe runs onto the back, photograph both sides.
• For screenshots, zoom in until the text is crisp before you capture it.

Bring it in

For a photo or screenshot, go to Recipes, tap + (Add recipe), choose Photo or screenshot, then Take photos or Choose from library, and tap Import recipe. For a PDF, go to Recipes, tap + (Add recipe), choose Import a file or PDF, then Choose recipe export or PDF, and select only the page or pages the recipe is on, then tap Import recipe. A forty-page class handout is easier to work with when you pick the two pages for the focaccia rather than importing everything.

When the draft is ready, open it and work through the checks below, even if it looks finished, then tap Save recipe. If Orzella asks for access you haven't given yet, follow the prompt.

Read it back like a careful cook

Most mistakes hide in the small marks. Put the original next to the result and check:

• Teaspoons and tablespoons. A faded “1 t” and “1 T” look alike, but you will taste the difference in salt or baking powder.
• Fractions. Make sure ½ has not become 12, or 1¼ 14.
• Oven temperatures and units. Was it 180 °C, 350 °F or “moderate oven”?
• Ingredients that wrap onto a second line, or steps that continue overleaf.

If a step simply is not written down, because Gran always just knew, look closely at that part of the draft. It may be missing, or it may show something that isn't on the card. Write what you know yourself, so it is clear the step came from you.

Keep the family version

Recipe cards are rarely followed exactly. Every recipe in Orzella can be edited, so change the recipe to match how you actually make it, and use personal notes for the story behind it: “Mum swapped half the milk for buttermilk” or “Dad's scones, the Christmas batch.” Notes are searchable, so typing “Dad” or “Christmas” will find them again.

Making a double batch for a crowd? Supported ingredient quantities scale with the number of servings, but baking times and temperatures do not change, so add a note if a bigger tray needs longer in the oven.

Keep the original too

An editable recipe is for cooking. The photo of the card in your grandmother’s handwriting is for keeping. Store the original image in your photo library or a dedicated album as well. A Recipe archive can keep selected recipes, sources, notes, collections, available supported photos and original captures together. Readable text gives you a separate copy to read or print, without photos.

From the drawer to the kitchen

The recipes that matter most are often the ones hardest to read. Careful capture and checking can turn a readable source into a recipe you can search, scale and cook from, with the family stories kept in the notes.