Receptlens

From recipe photo to your own cookbook

A native Android app that turns recipe photos into editable text on your device. Check the title, ingredients and steps, keep your own cookbook and adjust portions while cooking. The OCR model is included in the APK; the app needs no internet access. The companion website also has a separate web app.

receptlens.gerbenput.com

Kotlin · Android SDK · ML Kit 16.0.1 · JSON · Tesseract.js · WebAssembly · Node.js

Receptlens: Screenshot of the live site — Scroll: this is the real site

The story

The idea

A paper recipe is useful until you want to find it again, adjust it or keep it. Receptlens starts with photos from the camera or photo picker and ends with a searchable personal cookbook in a native Kotlin app. It does not fetch recipes from meal-kit providers or other websites and is independent of HelloFresh.

Recognise, then check

Google ML Kit Latin Text Recognition 16.0.1 is bundled in the APK and reads up to five photos on the device. The Android app has no INTERNET permission. A parser suggests the title, ingredients and steps, while the original text remains visible. The correction form and confirmation before saving make review part of preparing the recipe.

At the kitchen counter

Cream and green keep the native cookbook calm. Portion controls scale supported quantities, while cooking mode gives checkable steps more room. The Android test build is installed manually as an APK. The website also offers a separate Tesseract web app; each keeps its own book and exchanges recipes through JSON, without automatic synchronisation.

Receptlens companion website with the Android download and separate web app
Native Android correction form after local OCR of a recipe photo
Native Android cooking mode with large steps and progress checkboxes

In detail

Multiple photos: Use the Android camera or photo picker for up to five photos of one recipe. The bundled ML Kit model reads the text locally.
Correct it yourself: Edit the title, servings, time, ingredients and steps before saving the reviewed recipe.
Scale portions: Change the number of servings to scale supported quantities at the start of ingredient lines.
Cooking mode: Read larger steps, tick off your progress and use Android printing or PDF output to take the recipe with you.
Your own recipe book: Search private app storage and import, export or share recipes as JSON through Android's file picker and share menu.
Photos stay with you: The Android app works without INTERNET permission. Photos are processed temporarily on the device and are not stored with the saved recipe.

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