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Business Card Scanning


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I've been using a app called CamCard for a long time to scan business cards into my contacts. I tried the business card cam this morning. I was VERY impressed. It was faster and more accurate than CamCard. Nice addition to Evernote.

Thanks.

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Evernote Hello never really worked for me. Maybe I never really understood it. Or maybe I never needed those features. I just want to scan business cards into my existing contacts. I don't even keep notes in my contacts.

On the Mac version of Evernote, it seems that a lot of Skitch features are being integrated into the main program. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I hate feature bloat. Unless, of course, I really like the feature!

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Nice addition, but it would be much nicer if it would either export a v-card, or enable me to move the data into my iOS contacts.  Evernote is good, but it's not replacing my Contacts list which links to my phone, Facetime, Skype, etc.  anytime soon.

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Nice addition, but it would be much nicer if it would either export a v-card, or enable me to move the data into my iOS contacts.  Evernote is good, but it's not replacing my Contacts list which links to my phone, Facetime, Skype, etc.  anytime soon.

 

I REALLY like the idea of exporting as a v-card! 

AND/OR, EN iOS could offer an option to SEND/CREATE a new iOS contact.

That would be very sweet.

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There is already an option in the Evernote Settings to Save the info from the cards you scan to your default iOS contact account.  We will look at putting in a manual save for folks that prefer selective save functionality.

 

Additionally we are looking at how best to incorporate the VCard format without overly complicating the look of the note and the UI.  This is especially important for Windows folks as there doesn't seem to be a good default Calendar for that platform.

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The setting to save info from all cards is in the current version 7.2.   Just go to Evernote Settings > Business Cards (under Camera settings) and you should see a switch to "Save contact info to Contacts"

 

The manual command to Save to Contacts and the VCard stuff are being looked at for a future release.

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Just when I was getting excited over this new version, I found this thread:

The New 7.2 Update from December 12, 2013 Keeps Crashing

 

Come on Evernote, you keep doing this to us, time and time again.  You add new cool features, but then the new ver has major bugs.

Have you guys forgot how to properly test a new ver BEFORE release????

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@Martin Packer - I'll use Hello over the in-app business card scanner b/c I'm notorious for gathering biz cards & having no recollection of where I met the person and why I have their card.  Hello provides context, thus giving me a solution to remember people.  

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I have a question regarding the new business card scanning. After scanning a card, is the info from the card supposed to auto-populate? Things such as Name, Phone#, & Email Address. If not, what's the use of scanning a business card if you still have to manually type the info in. If so, then, what am I doing wrong or how is this supposed to work, thanks.

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Hi Brian,

 

Yes we should be pulling information from the card and turning it into text.  I you are having problems with our card recognition, take a look at these tips.  How to Scan Business Cards with Evernote     .  One key thing is to have good overall lighting - more light means clearer, sharper picture and better recognition.  If you are trying glossy cards, tilt the phone at an angle to allow the flash to bounce off the card instead of reflecting back into the camera.  Our software will adjust and automatically straighten out the picture.

 

Hope this helps. 

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I have tried multiple business cards with no luck yet that the app recognizes the name/phone etc.

The photo is taken in normall (good) office light environment.  iPhone 4s uses flash to make the photo.

So any other tips?

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I did about 15 cards and it worked very well! Sometimes cards with non-typical layouts caused some grief, and sometimes perfectly good photos were oddly cut off on one edge or another, usually cards with dark backgrounds.

But really on,y a small minority needed manual fixing.

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  • 1 month later...

I have a question regarding the new business card scanning. After scanning a card, is the info from the card supposed to auto-populate? Things such as Name, Phone#, & Email Address. If not, what's the use of scanning a business card if you still have to manually type the info in. If so, then, what am I doing wrong or how is this supposed to work, thanks.

This is really my concern because it does not scan while not connected to the interenet, which I just do not get.  Why not scan and OCR later?   Even when it is connected to the internet it does not recognize anything on my business card when using my iPod Touch, which is something that Hello does perfectly.  On my iPad it seems to work fine, so now I'm wondering if there is a bug in the program.

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I know this thread has focused mostly on scanning cards with the iOS app.  That works pretty well.  I am trying to get the same functionality using my SnapScan s1500 scanner.  I know with the Evernote addition will automagically scan and OCR contact info.  Clearly, the heavy lifting has already been done.  Can we get that same functionality as a plugin for the s1500?!?

 

Thanks,

Brad

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I know this thread has focused mostly on scanning cards with the iOS app.  That works pretty well.  I am trying to get the same functionality using my SnapScan s1500 scanner.  I know with the Evernote addition will automagically scan and OCR contact info.  Clearly, the heavy lifting has already been done.  Can we get that same functionality as a plugin for the s1500?!?

 

Thanks,

Brad

 

Evernote employees have stated several times that the special functions provided by the Scansnap Evernote Edition are available ONLY for that specific scanner, and it's not likely that they will provide for other scanners.

 

Until/IF they do, your best bet meantime is to find Mac software that will scan business cards and capture the data as contact fields.

Some Scansnap scanners provide this type of software, which can also be purchased separated.  For example:

 

 

Cardiris™ V4.0 (Mac)

With Cardiris™ business card OCR software for Mac adding and managing contact information is a breeze. Scanned business card info can be edited and then exported to Address Book, Entourage, AppleWorks, vCard and other contact management systems.

 

See IrisLink.com for details.

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This is really my concern because it does not scan while not connected to the interenet, which I just do not get.  Why not scan and OCR later?  

 

 

Online scanning offers many more benefits to offline scanning.  For one, we can perform social network searches at the same time to enhance the data we get from the card.  Most card scanning apps don't have this capability or have a multi-step process to look someone up on LinkedIn / Facebook.  In addition, by keeping the recognition service on a server, separate from the app, we can push changes outside of the app release cycle and Apple's approval process to ensure that you always have the best recognition results.  

 

Scanning later opens up a lot of complexity with synchronizing clients some which may be online or offline at any moment in time.  As we wanted to make sure your information is editable at all times, we chose to simplify the experience by only allowing online scanning.  That way when you scan a business card, you know the resulting note is complete and can be edited immediately.

 

Even when it is connected to the internet it does not recognize anything on my business card when using my iPod Touch, which is something that Hello does perfectly.  On my iPad it seems to work fine, so now I'm wondering if there is a bug in the program.

 

 

This may be a bug.  If you are scanning the same card with both your iPod Touch and iPad under the same lighting conditions, there shouldn't be a reason why the iPod touch doesn't perform the recognition.  We fixed a bug recently in the 7.3 release where some people were having recognition issues after upgrading to 7.2.  If you aren't running 7.3 on your iPod Touch you should upgrade.  If you continue to have issues with the iPod Touch after upgrading, please contact support via the link in my signature.  We will need more detailed info to diagnose your problem.  

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This is really my concern because it does not scan while not connected to the interenet, which I just do not get.  Why not scan and OCR later?  

 

 

Online scanning offers many more benefits to offline scanning.  For one, we can perform social network searches at the same time to enhance the data we get from the card.  Most card scanning apps don't have this capability or have a multi-step process to look someone up on LinkedIn / Facebook.  In addition, by keeping the recognition service on a server, separate from the app, we can push changes outside of the app release cycle and Apple's approval process to ensure that you always have the best recognition results.  

 

Scanning later opens up a lot of complexity with synchronizing clients some which may be online or offline at any moment in time.  As we wanted to make sure your information is editable at all times, we chose to simplify the experience by only allowing online scanning.  That way when you scan a business card, you know the resulting note is complete and can be edited immediately.

 

Even when it is connected to the internet it does not recognize anything on my business card when using my iPod Touch, which is something that Hello does perfectly.  On my iPad it seems to work fine, so now I'm wondering if there is a bug in the program.

 

 

This may be a bug.  If you are scanning the same card with both your iPod Touch and iPad under the same lighting conditions, there shouldn't be a reason why the iPod touch doesn't perform the recognition.  We fixed a bug recently in the 7.3 release where some people were having recognition issues after upgrading to 7.2.  If you aren't running 7.3 on your iPod Touch you should upgrade.  If you continue to have issues with the iPod Touch after upgrading, please contact support via the link in my signature.  We will need more detailed info to diagnose your problem.  

 

Yep, it was a bug.  I just updated and it is working fine now. 

 

With regard to scanning offline.  I would rather have the ability to scan offline, than not have any ability to scan at all when I am offline.   If the purpose is to avoid collecting cards, I should be able to scan and OCR later, or just have the ability to scan something as a business card, even if it does not OCR.   Evernote Hello can do this already, as can many similar apps for cards and barcodes, so I just assumed that the full version of Evernote would be capable of doing it.  It would be great if we could scan and then the app push cards out to the server for recognition once the device comes online again.  

 

Thanks for checking in to this.

 

Paul

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Scanning later opens up a lot of complexity with synchronizing clients some which may be online or offline at any moment in time.  As we wanted to make sure your information is editable at all times, we chose to simplify the experience by only allowing online scanning.  That way when you scan a business card, you know the resulting note is complete and can be edited immediately. 

 

 

mcheng, I appreciate that it may simplify EN app design to restrict scanning only to online.

However, that is NOT very user friendly, and places an undue burden on the user.

 

I think perhaps you are making it more complex than it need be.

Please consider this.

Allow the scan offline which stores the image locally on the device.

Then, when online, perform the OCR before that Note is synced.

Once the Note(s) are OCR'd and sync'd, you could notify the user that these notes are now available for edit.

 

Thanks.

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  • 2 months later...

Let me add my vote for being able to scan whilst offline and later, peform OCR.  Lots of dead time on planes etc when I'n not connected that I can use for scanning and later, in other places, run the OCR.  Doesn't seem too complicated to implement to me - just break it into 2 steps.

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  • 1 year later...

Hi I'm using iPhone Evernote to auto scan business card. shows me it interpreted info correct ly, press save at top of screen and then cancel and poof - no business card note saved anywhere - Saving to "Oblivion" folder ???  Thanks

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Hi 

 

Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

There was a bug with saving business cards that slipped into the most recent release.  We have a fix already and its in Apple's hands waiting for approval.  Hopefully it will be approved and released in a week or so.  

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@mcheng:
 
Have you guys noticed that every time you make a major update, you introduce major new bugs that affect everyone?
 

 

There was a bug with saving business cards that slipped into the most recent release.

 

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I've had zero luck at the biz card feature today; was in medical office, fast paced, attempted while there, in parking lot and later at home.  No saving of card, even tho it recognized it, inputting contact info below.  I awaited patiently (first 8 times) the camera to signal it was saved and I could save into the contact file (Vcard), which is an extra step on iphone, single step in android.  I have 5s, hence, I know this secondary step. Wasn't given the option.  Only to save at top, then kablammo, the cancel button erases all you did.  No saving to notes.  hmmm I see somebody up above noted it may have saved into a mystery folder in another parallel universe?  Mine did NOT save.

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Apple approved and we released 7.7.5 a few hours ago with a fix to the biz card saving problem.  Please update to the latest version of the iOS client.

 

Thanks.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi - So far the Evernote business card photo scanning functionality has worked as expected - well. I am trying to do something a bit beyond simply saving to a note / local iOS contacts list though, which is where I need some help or guidance.

 

My goal is to synchronize the creation of a new person in my CRM (Pipedrive) with the creation of a new Business Card in a specific Evernote folder. With the flow going like this:

 

1. Capture photo of Biz card in Evernote (iOS) >

2. Save to specific sub-folder in Evernote >

3. Use Zapier's new note to new contact Zap between Evernote and Pipedrive >

4. Pipedrive receives info and posts a new contact, with the proper contact information in the correct fields i.e. Phone number is populated with ###-###-#### and email field gets an email address.

 

There are a couple issues though when I try to do this:

 

1. The Title of the note that gets created automatically has "- Business Card" appended after the person's name. This may be good for organization in Evenote, but doesn't scale in connecting to other software, which I understand is a secondary use case, but if we could figure out a way to remove "-business card" text that would be great!

2. The way Evernote captures data (other than the Person's Name which is also used as the Title of the Note" is to store everything in a single: "Content Text" field. This includes Email, Phone Number and any other identifying text, such as Position/Title within the organization. If you look at the Business Card "note" that gets created within Evernote itself, it has parsed this information into the individual fields they are meant to be in: i.e. ###-###-#### is in a field titled "Phone Number" But if you try and connect this data to an external system (Zapier: Pipedrive) it all gets thrown into one field, with all of that content squished together rendering the automation aspect less useful as it all needs to be corrected manually."

 

I've used Evernote for several years now, love it's core features and totally understand that this is an edge case, and that you're probably working on (or already have) a paid version of this to cut Zapier out completely with your own direct-to-third-party APIs. BUT.... if you do happen to have a work-around that could allow me to automate my process, I'm all ears.

 

Thanks.

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  • 2 years later...

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