Turn your Android phone into an image-to-text scanner with SnapIt

December 10, 2009 | by Andrew Kameka

Everyone has at some point read an interesting tidbit in a magazine and then purchased the mag, ripped a page out, scribbled on a napkin, or snapped a photo with a cellphone. With Android app SnapIt, you can avoid spending money or destroying paper and just let your phone be your own personal scanner.

SnapIt is a $1.99 app that can take photos of paragraphs in books, newspapers, and magazines, then convert the image to editable text. Give the limitations of Android cameras, SnapIt can scan only certain passages at a time, but it can prove fairly accurate and useful under the right conditions. Once an image is scanned, users have the option to crop and focus on a certain section, convert the words to text, and then send the text as an SMS message or email. It can even lead to translation online.

Below is a video showing an example of SnapIt in-use and a step-by-step collection of screenshots to show the process.

When SnapIt is launched, the image may be out of focus. Select the “+” icon and the image will autofocus.

Once the camera focuses and a photo is taken, press the “a” icon to convert to text or select the portrait icon to crop and focus on a certain portion of the image, as seen here:

The red square can be relocated to highlight only the desired text.

Your image is now text! Press the stamp icon to share it or press the “Hello” icon to launch a link to translation.

android apps, notes, paid apps, productivity, scanner, Video Tutorials, Videos

12 Comments

Z-Liberator said: On December 10, 2009

Excellent for College Work!

Paolo Amoroso said: On December 13, 2009

Thank you very much for the heads up. At times, Android bloggers are too busy chasing rumors and new device announcements, and forget the reason why such devices are bought in the first place: to be used and run applications.
My recent post Fornisci l'indirizzo completo del tuo museo o istituto scientifico

Bozi said: On July 9, 2010

could not find this app on the store :S! Anybody has a working link?

Naeem said: On October 16, 2010

app not in market

bheja said: On December 5, 2010

cannot find the app?? anybody??

seachen said: On January 31, 2011

not found

luai said: On September 2, 2011

can give me some tutorial , or how to do that

Jon said: On September 20, 2011

tried it, didn't work well with a normal size page, completely garbled

lynn said: On November 29, 2011

not found !

Joseph said: On February 5, 2013

constantly i used to read smaller content which also clear their motive, and
that is also happening with this paragraph which I am reading here.

http://lmaocr.com/groups/the-happiest-man-ever/ said: On April 26, 2013

I visited several websites except the audio quality for
audio songs present at this website is genuinely excellent.

http://malagaspain.info said: On May 2, 2013

Informative article, exactly what I wanted to find.

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