Digitise your menu from a photo

You photograph your printed menu with your phone or pick an existing image – dishes, ingredients, prices and categories are read out of it. In the panel the route is Speisekarte hinzufügen and there Foto scannen. The review sheet Extrahiertes Menü prüfen then opens: you correct names, prices and categories and click Menü übernehmen – only then do the dishes appear in your menu. Up to 5 photo scans are available per month; a counter at the top of the page shows what is left (5 / 5 Scans).

The four steps

Open Speisekarte hinzufügen and choose Foto scannen – with the camera or an existing image.
The status bar shows that reading is under way; the review sheet opens afterwards.
Under Extrahiertes Menü prüfen, adjust categories and dishes before inserting them.
Click Menü übernehmen – or Abbrechen, in which case nothing is saved.

The step-by-step guide is available under Quick import: photo scan (OCR) & JSON.

Which images are accepted

Image formats JPEG, PNG and WebP, up to about 12 MB per image.
The photo scan does not read a PDF file. Photograph the printed page or save the page as an image.
One page or one section per photo – split long menus across several images.
Photograph straight and sharp, with good light and no reflections. These notes sit in the panel as expandable tips with example images under Tipps für ein gutes Foto.

Handwriting and menus in other languages

No printed menu yet? Then write it by hand – in your own language – and photograph the sheet. Menus in Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish or English are rendered into German while being read out, using the terms a guest here expects rather than a transliteration. For your guests the finished menu can then be shown in five languages – see Multilingual menu.

What becomes of one line

Every line with a price is created as its own dish: name, ingredients, price and category. Where several prices sit side by side, for example in size columns, variants with their own price are created from them. Dish numbers are assigned by the system when the photo carries none or when a number appears twice. Extras, selection groups, images and availability are added afterwards on the dish – Create a new dish shows how.

Nothing unclear is invented

Lines that could not be read reliably do not end up as dishes in your menu; they are listed separately as unclear lines, and notes on reading quality appear in the review sheet before insertion. If the scan finds no usable data at all, you get an error message instead of an invented menu. Even so, go through names and prices line by line before you transfer them – printed menus carry small print that a photo yields only with difficulty.

Allergens are deliberately not copied from the photo

Codes, footnotes and legend tables on the image („Allergene: A) …", „1 = mit Farbstoff") are removed and are not taken into your data. The reason: such codes are set in-house – the „2" on your old menu can mean something different from the „2" in the official catalogue. After insertion, allergens (LMIV) and additives are entered automatically per dish from name, category and ingredients, or the dish is marked as Prüfung nicht möglich – bitte manuell. As long as a dish has not been confirmed by you, guests read the sentence „Allergene und Zusatzstoffe wurden automatisch eingetragen und können ungenau sein. Bitte fragen Sie im Zweifel beim Personal nach." Checking remains your task: you confirm the entries under Allergene & Zusatzstoffe prüfen, and what a person has decided is no longer overwritten by the system. More on this under Label allergens automatically and Allergens & additives.

Carry on later

A scan you have started is not lost: saved sessions appear under Fortsetzen on the same page as soon as there are any. So you can photograph the menu in the evening and finish the corrections the next day.

Second route: JSON import

If you have backed up your menu before, you can load it again via JSON importieren – you create the backup file through the JSON export under Manage dishes, provided that area is enabled for your restaurant. Dishes that already exist are skipped, so duplicates are not created twice. If the file does not fit, Ungültige JSON-Datei oder Struktur. appears.

Who is this worth it for?

For everyone starting from an existing paper menu: with a menu that has many positions you save typing every single line on your phone. The photo scan also makes sense after a redesign of the menu, or when taking over a business whose previous menu keeps running for now. If you only carry a few dishes, or are rewriting your menu completely anyway, create the dishes by hand instead. What the finished menu looks like for guests is shown by Digital menu & QR menu.

Frequently asked questions

Can I simply photograph my menu?

Yes. Under „Speisekarte hinzufügen" you choose „Foto scannen" and photograph the printed menu with the camera, or pick an existing image. The recognised dishes first land in the review sheet „Extrahiertes Menü prüfen" and only reach the menu after your click on „Menü übernehmen".

Can I upload my menu as a PDF?

The photo scan processes image files: JPEG, PNG and WebP, up to about 12 MB per image. It does not accept a PDF file – photograph the printed page or save the PDF page as an image. A menu you backed up earlier is loaded via „JSON importieren".

How many photo scans do I have per month?

Up to 5 photo scans are available per month. The counter at the top of the page („5 / 5 Scans") shows how many photo scans are left. Split long menus across several images, one image per page or section.

Are allergens taken over from the photo?

No. Allergen and additive codes on the image are removed, because they are assigned differently from house to house. After insertion, allergens and additives are entered automatically per dish from name, category and ingredients; confirming them is up to you, under „Allergene & Zusatzstoffe prüfen".

Does the photo scan work with a handwritten menu or one in another language?

Handwritten menus can be photographed as long as the writing is legible. Menus in Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish or English are rendered into German while being read out. Photographing straight, with good light and without reflections, improves the result.

What happens if the photo scan reads a line wrongly?

You correct names, prices and categories in the review sheet „Extrahiertes Menü prüfen" before anything is saved; with „Abbrechen" you discard the whole scan. Lines that could not be read reliably are listed as unclear lines instead of being created as dishes.

Can I load an existing menu as a file?

Yes, via „JSON importieren" with a backup file exported earlier. Dishes that already exist are skipped, so duplicates are not created twice. If the file does not fit, the message „Ungültige JSON-Datei oder Struktur." appears.

More on this: Digital menu & QR menu · Label allergens automatically · Multilingual menu