OCR scanning
You have a songbook on paper and you do not want to retype it. Scanning turns it into text you then only need to tidy up.
What OCR can and cannot do
⚠
OCR in Eutepio recognises text — words, lines, chords written as letters. It does not recognise musical notation. A photo of a staff will not become a playable score; that would need an entirely different technology (OMR), which the app does not have.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| What is recognised | Printed and written text in the Latin script |
| Where it runs | On the device — the photo is never uploaded |
| Platforms | Android and iOS only. There is no button on Windows. |
| Input | Camera or an image from the gallery |
| Output | A list of lines, ordered top to bottom |
How to scan
- In the Library, choose Scan.
- Photograph the page, or pick an existing photo from the gallery.
- Wait for recognition — it runs locally and takes seconds.
- A review of the detected lines opens.
- You can add another photo — multiple pages are appended in order.
- Insert the text into the editor; the app tries to suggest a title and artist.
- Fill in chords and metadata, then save.
Tips for a good result
Lighting
Even, soft light. The worst cases are hard side light that casts a shadow across half the page, and direct flash, which leaves a white blob on glossy paper.
Angle and framing
Shoot straight down, not at an angle. A skewed page recognises noticeably worse. Fill the frame with the page and keep everything else out.
The page
- Flat paper without folds or waves
- A contrasting surface underneath
- Shoot columns separately — two-column layouts often read back as interleaved lines
What does not work well
- Handwritten cursive
- Very small type
- Photos through plastic sleeves or glass frames
- Coloured background printing under the text
Review and fixes
Never insert recognised text blindly. Go through the lines in the review and expect to fix:
- Diacritics — accented characters are the most common error
- Swapped characters, typically
l/1/Iand0/O - Line splits, if the source was set in columns
- Chords — if the source has them above the lyrics, they end up on separate lines and need rewriting into ChordPro form
The editor has a "chords above lyrics" mode that makes exactly this case easier — leave the chords on the lines above the words and the app converts them to ChordPro for you.
Limitations
- Latin script only. Other scripts are not recognised.
- Mobile platforms only. There is no scanning on desktop.
- No music recognition. See the warning above.
- No page layout. The output is a list of lines ordered top to bottom — columns, indentation and boxes are lost.
- No batch mode. You add photos one at a time, even though they combine into a single song.
ℹ
If the song exists anywhere in ChordPro form, importing it will always be faster than scanning. See Export & import.