photo or document

[psychodougie 5]

This is not a question about turning photos into text, but about the options to save a photo as a photo or a document - where it flattens it out and makes it black and white.

It's a great feature and I like it.

My question is: once you (I) errantly save something as a photo, can you go back and turn a photo into a document? I can't seem to be able to do that, either on my iPhone, or on my laptop. 

So I took a bunch of photos of pages of a book, but didn't change the option from photo to document. Is there any way to change this now the photos have already been saved as photos?

 

Thanks in advance.

[gazumped 11,666]

Hi.  A 'document' - if you're referring to the Evernote camera setting - is saved as a PDF file,  which saves multiple pages in one file.  A 'photo' - by the same definition - is saved as a JPG file;  one picture,  one file.  PDFs generally are lower quality - less resolution and colour - than JPGs.  It is possible to turn one into the other - you need a PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat,  or one of dozens of other apps;  but you won't get the same picture quality.  (There's no way within Evernote to do that)

An original photo vs a document turned into a photo will always be far better quality.  The other way you get worse quality.

You should be able to merge a number of JPG files into a PDF file and either make that file searchable,  or (if you're a paid user) allow Evernote to index it.  Still external software - but do an internet search for something like 'merging files into one PDF' plus your available OS on your mobile and desktop devices and you should be able to find something.

But I have to ask: is it strictly necessary to do this at all?  Evernote will still OCR and index your photos (if they contain text)...

[psychodougie 5]

Thanks for your response gazumped.

I'm more asking about the order in which things happens - if there is any way to go back once you have selected 'photo' and change it to 'document.'

When you save a photo of a document, it has colour and other things that aren't necessary. But when you take a photo and select 'document', it looks much cleaner. 

See the contrast below. Both from the same book; the one on the left I saved as default (photo) whereas I realised I could save as document for the second. 

The second is much more pleasing to the eye and easier to read. So I wondered if there was a process within Evernote to go back and fix it.

But it sounds like, short of retaking the photos as documents, there isn't.

[gazumped 11,666]

Nope - once you've made your choice all you could do is bin the first shot and try again. 

[psychodougie 5]

okey doke. appreciate your response

[JohnLongney 83]

Let me point out one aspect which does a significant influence on 'sharpness' and that is the failing correction of distortion. 

One of the first corrections any photographer would tackle is lens and other distortions.

To any camera the raw format is pixels, output formats are jpg. tif, pdf and more and with advanced software settings (as to compression rate and lots ore) can be controlled for output. But as smartphone cameras are designed to preprocess output to file sizes in keeping with the actual device, one should not go for the worst quality output because it limits the scope of further corrections. 

With dedicated software such as Adobe Lightroom you can eliminate distortion to practically zero, correct colour balance (white and black point) remove spots, convert to b/w and go back, all without degrading the original too much. All such extra work takes time, especially if one is a novice to such work. 

Myself I prefer to use more sophisticated camera scanning software including distortion correction. Output as jpg invariably better to pdf, though usually the pdf is quite adequate. 

One of the core issues with the Evernote camera app is the lack in development. I am saying this with confidence because my phone itself is quite outdated but with improved camera apps can produce first rate scans which I was not getting when the device was new.

Nevertheless, if you want to use the Evernote camera app you still have the option for post processing.