Family Recipe Book

Overview

Family Recipe Book is a shared collection for your household. Everyone you invite can browse, add, and edit recipes together. Your recipes are organized into Family recipes (visible to everyone) and Personal recipes (only visible to you until you share them).

Use the sidebar on the left to navigate between sections. On mobile, tap the menu button in the top-left corner to open it.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is your home base — open it from the sidebar anytime to see what's going on with your recipe collection.

• Recipe counts — shows how many Family, Personal, and Draft recipes are in your collection. Click any count to jump straight to that view.
• Active Uploads — if you've started a Bulk Upload that's still being reviewed, it appears here with a quick link to continue.
• Add a Recipe — shortcuts to the most common tasks: Write a Recipe, Upload Recipe Card, and Bulk Upload.

Usage Statistics

The Usage Statistics panel shows two meters for your family account:

• Smart Scans — how many AI-powered image and PDF scans have been used this month out of your monthly allowance. Each image or PDF page processed through Upload Recipe Card or Bulk Upload counts as one scan. Word (.docx) uploads do not use scan credits. If you're running low, consider using URL Import or typing recipes manually until the allowance resets.
• Storage Used — how much space your uploaded images and files are using out of your account's total limit.

Owners and Admins can also see usage breakdowns per family member in the Family section.

Adding a Recipe

There are three ways to add a recipe:

• Create Recipe — type it in manually using the recipe editor.
• Upload Recipe Card — take a photo of a handwritten or printed card. Smart Scan reads the text and pre-fills the recipe form for you.
• Bulk Upload — upload multiple recipe card photos at once. Each one gets processed and queued for your review before being saved.

All new recipes start as a Draft (private to you) while you work. Click Save to put the recipe in your personal collection. To make it visible to the household, open the recipe and click Share with Family.

Upload Recipe Card

Use Upload Recipe Card (in the Create Recipe menu or the Add a Recipe section on the dashboard) to add a recipe from an existing source. The app extracts the text and pre-fills the recipe form — you review and correct before saving. There are three ways to get a recipe in:

Upload a File

Drag and drop a file onto the upload area, or click Choose File(s) to browse. Supported formats:

• Images — JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP. Use this for photos of handwritten or printed recipe cards. You can upload multiple images at once (e.g. front and back of a card) and the app combines them before extracting.
• PDF — Works great for recipe pages saved or printed from a website, scanned cookbooks, or any document saved as PDF. If the PDF has selectable text (like a saved webpage), extraction is instant. Image-based PDFs (scanned pages) are processed page by page.
• Word (.docx) — Upload a Word document containing a recipe. Text is extracted from paragraphs and tables and sorted into the recipe fields automatically. No scan credit is used for Word files.

After the file is processed, you'll see the extracted text alongside the original. Review and correct anything before saving. Each image or PDF page processed uses one Smart Scan credit from your monthly allowance — check Dashboard › Usage Statistics to see how many you have remaining.

Use Your Camera (mobile & tablet)

On a phone or tablet, tap 📸 Take Photo to open your camera. You can take as many photos as you need:

• Tap Add Another Photo after each shot to keep going — there's no need to fit front and back into one frame.
• When you've captured all the pages, tap Process Photos and the app stitches them together for extraction.

For best results:

• Use good, even lighting — avoid shadows across the text
• Hold the camera parallel to the card so the text isn't skewed
• Fill the frame with the card, leaving a small border

Don't see the camera button? It only appears on devices that have a camera. On a desktop or laptop, use Choose File(s) to upload a photo you've already taken.

Import from URL

Paste a recipe website URL into the box at the bottom of the Upload Recipe Card page and click Import Recipe. The app fetches the page and fills in the recipe fields automatically — no file needed.

For best results, use URLs from major recipe sites (AllRecipes, Food Network, Serious Eats, King Arthur Baking, and most food blogs). These import instantly and completely, including ingredients, instructions, times, servings, and nutrition.

If the import fails or gives incomplete results, one of these is usually why:

• The site blocks automated requests — you'll see an error or a near-empty result.
• The recipe data isn't machine-readable — the page looks fine in a browser but the text is embedded in images or loaded after the page opens.
• The site uses an unusual layout — the importer may miss some fields even when it can read the page.

Workaround: Open the recipe page in your browser and use Print → Save as PDF (Windows: Microsoft Print to PDF; Mac: click the PDF button in the print dialog). Then upload that PDF using Choose File(s) — it typically gives excellent results.

Bulk Upload

Bulk Upload lets you process a whole stack of recipe cards at once — ideal for digitizing a recipe box or cookbook.

• Select multiple images at once from your device
• The app groups related images (e.g. front/back of one card) automatically
• After processing, recipes are auto-validated: titles are Title Cased, ingredient quantity/unit/prep fields are repaired, and a category is guessed. High-confidence recipes go to Approved; others land in Ready to Approve, Needs Attention, or No Data.
• On an existing batch, click Validate this batch to run the same checks without re-scanning images.
• After processing, open the In Progress tab inside Bulk Upload to review each extracted recipe, correct leftovers, and save approved recipes
• Supported file types: JPG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF images only. For PDF or Word (.docx) files, use Upload Recipe Card instead — it supports those formats.

Replay bulk validation tour Replay batch category browse tour

Bulk Upload — Review Editor

After a Bulk Upload is processed, open the In Progress tab and click Edit on any recipe card to review and correct the extracted text before saving. This editor is the same split-panel view as the regular recipe editor, but with a few differences.

What's Different

• The image panel shows all images attached to this item and includes an Order field and Apply Order button — use these to control which image appears first if you have multiple photos. Apply Order saves the order immediately without needing to save the whole recipe.
• Each image has Delete and Move buttons. Use Re-run OCR next to Extracted Text to re-scan all cards at once.
• Move Image… in the left panel lets you send an image from this batch item to a different recipe or merge it into another batch item.

Save Buttons

• Save Draft — saves progress without committing the recipe anywhere. The item stays in your Bulk Upload queue for later.
• Save Personal — saves the recipe to your personal collection immediately and removes it from the batch queue.
• Save to Family — publishes the recipe to the family collection immediately and removes it from the batch queue.

You can also approve multiple batch items at once from the In Progress list — use the checkboxes to select them and click Save Selected to Personal or Save Selected to Family.

Browsing & Searching

Browse Modes

The Recipes section in the sidebar has three browse modes:

• Browse Family — all recipes shared with your household, organized by category.
• Browse Personal — your own private recipes (personal saves and drafts).
• Browse Drafts — recipes you haven't finished yet, across all draft statuses.

Categories and Subcategories

Browse opens at the Categories view — a grid of every category that has at least one recipe. Recipes with no category appear in Unknown. Click a category card to drill in and see its subcategories. Recipes that have a category but no subcategory appear in an Unknown card inside that category. Click a subcategory card to see the recipes it contains.

The breadcrumb at the top (e.g. All Categories › Appetizers › Cold Appetizers) shows where you are. Click any breadcrumb item to jump back up.

The Toggle Buttons

The two buttons in the top-right of the browse panel change what you're looking at:

• 📁 Categories — returns to the category grid (root level). Always available.
• 📋 All Recipes (at root) — shows every recipe in this browse mode as a flat list with full sort and filter options.
• 📋 All [Category Name] (inside a category) — shows every recipe in that category across all its subcategories as a flat list. For example, inside Appetizers this reads "All Appetizers" and shows everything — Cold Appetizers, Hot Appetizers, Finger Foods, and more — in one scrollable list.
• 📁 Subcategories (inside a subcategory) — steps back up to the parent category's subcategory grid.

Sorting and Filtering

When viewing a flat recipe list (All Recipes, All [Category], or a subcategory), a toolbar appears with:

• Sort — A–Z, Z–A, Newest First, Oldest First, Recently Modified, Oldest Modified. When viewing all recipes across the whole browse mode, a "By Category" option also appears.
• Source — filter to recipes from a specific source (appears only when there are multiple sources).
• Added by — filter by which family member added the recipe (family mode only, appears when there are multiple contributors).
• ⊞ / ☰ — switch between grid and list view. Your preference is remembered per browse mode.

Searching Within Browse

A search box sits just above the toggle buttons. It searches only within the current browse context — it does not mix in results from other categories or browse modes.

• At root: category cards with no matching recipes dim out; cards with matches update to show the match count. This lets you quickly spot which categories have what you're looking for.
• Inside a category: subcategory cards update the same way (dimmed if no matches, match count shown if there are). A flat "Matching Recipes" section also appears below the subcategory grid so you can open any match directly without drilling in.
• In a flat list or subcategory: recipe cards filter live as you type. Sort and filter still apply on top of the search.

The search box searches recipe names, sources, descriptions, ingredients, and tags — the same fields as the main search bar. Click × to clear the search and return to the full view.

The main search bar at the top of the sidebar searches across your entire recipe collection regardless of where you are. Use it when you don't know which category a recipe is in.

Viewing a Recipe

Open any recipe from Browse or search results to see its full details. The action bar at the top of the recipe provides everything you can do with it.

Action Bar Buttons

• Print — opens a print preview so you can review the layout before sending to your printer or saving as PDF. See Printing a Recipe for details.
• History — browse every previously saved version of the recipe. Click any version to compare it with the current one, or restore it as the current recipe.
• Add to Plan — adds the recipe to an Event Planner event you choose. If you're already viewing the recipe from inside an event, this becomes Remove from Plan.
• Adjust servings — scale ingredient quantities up or down without modifying the saved recipe. See Adjust Servings.
• Edit — opens the recipe editor. Available to Members, Admins, and Owners; not shown to Viewers.
• Share with Family — shown on Draft and Personal recipes you created. Publishes the recipe so every family member can see it.
• Unshare from Family — shown on Family recipes you created. Moves the recipe back to your personal collection.
• Clone to My Recipes — saves a personal copy of the recipe that you can edit independently. The original is not changed.
• Delete — permanently removes the recipe. Shown only to the recipe owner and Admins/Owners.

Recipe Status

A badge next to the recipe title shows its current status:

• Draft — private to you and not visible to other family members.
• Personal — saved to your personal collection; still only visible to you.
• Family — shared with the whole household; visible to everyone.

Manage Images

If a recipe has source images attached and you have edit access, an expandable Manage images panel appears below the image. Click it to see each image with two actions:

• Re-run OCR — re-extracts text from that image using AI. Useful when the original scan was incomplete or you want a fresh read. After re-extraction, the recipe editor opens with the new OCR text pre-loaded so you can review and apply any changes.
• Move to recipe — transfers the image to a different recipe. Use this to fix images that were attached to the wrong recipe during a bulk scan. A search box lets you find the destination recipe by name.

Editing a Recipe

To edit an existing recipe, open it and click Edit in the action bar. To start from scratch, use Create Recipe › Write a Recipe in the sidebar. The recipe editor opens in a split-panel view.

Left Panel — Source Images & OCR Text

The left panel shows the original scanned images and the text extracted from them (OCR). Use them as a reference while filling in the fields on the right.

• Use the ◂ / ▸ arrow to collapse or expand the panel if you need more room to edit.
• If the recipe has no source images, the panel shows a placeholder and can still be collapsed.
• Re-run OCR (next to Extracted Text) re-extracts text from every source image. You can update the extracted text only, or also refill the recipe fields from the new scan.

Recipe Fields

• Title — required.
• Category / Subcategory — controls where the recipe appears in Browse.
• Source — the person, book, or website the recipe comes from. When you type a URL, a Go to Website ↗ button appears so you can open the original page without leaving the editor.
• Prep / Cook time — in minutes; optional.
• Servings — used as the base amount for Adjust Servings.
• Description — a short intro shown at the top of the recipe view.
• Ingredients — one ingredient per row. Click + Add Ingredient to add a row.
• Instructions — one step per row. Click + Add Step to add a row.
• Tags — freeform labels used for filtering in Browse.
• Nutrition — optional summary line (e.g., Calories: 224kcal | Protein: 7g).
• Equipment — optional; list any special pans, tools, or appliances the recipe requires, one per line (e.g., 9×13 baking pan, stand mixer). These appear in their own section on the recipe view.
• Notes — tips, variations, substitutions, or anything else worth remembering.

Ingredient & Instruction Sections

For complex recipes, you can organize ingredients and instructions into named groups. Click + Add Section (next to the + Add Ingredient or + Add Step button) to insert a labeled divider. Examples:

• Ingredient sections: Dough, Filling, Glaze
• Instruction sections: Prep, Assembly, Baking

Section headers appear in the recipe view and in printed output.

Save Buttons

The left panel always has Save. When you're editing a new recipe or a draft, Draft appears as well.

• Save — for a draft or new recipe, this moves it into your personal collection. For a personal or family recipe, it saves changes in place.
• Draft — saves your work and keeps the recipe in Browse Drafts so you can finish it later.

Sharing and unsharing happen on the recipe view, next to Clone — not in the editor. Auto-save still keeps an in-progress draft if you step away.

Clone is available when editing an existing personal or family recipe. It saves a copy under your account without changing the original.

Adjust Servings

Each recipe can be scaled up or down from its original serving size. Click Adjust servings on any recipe to open the scaling tool.

• The Original servings field is pre-filled if the recipe has a serving size. If not, type one in to scale to a specific target count — or skip it and use the quick buttons.
• Enter a Target servings amount, or use the ×2 ×3 ×4 quick buttons under that field to double, triple, or quadruple the ingredients. Those buttons work even when the recipe has no serving size. The tool shows original and scaled quantities side by side so you can compare before applying.
• Click Apply to recipe to update the displayed ingredient quantities. This is a visual-only change — it does not modify the saved recipe.
• A banner appears under the Ingredients heading to remind you the view is scaled. Click reset to original in that banner (or use the button in the modal) to restore the original amounts.

Scaling also applies to event shopping lists when a servings target is set — see Event Planner › Shopping List for details.

Printing a Recipe

Open any recipe and click Print in the action bar. A preview opens first so you can confirm the layout before sending it to your printer or saving a PDF.

• The printout always includes the title, servings, ingredients, and instructions.
• If you have adjusted servings on the recipe view, the scaled ingredient amounts are what print — not the original saved quantities.
• Use Printer Options in the preview (or in Settings) to control images, one- vs two-column layout, and optional extras like notes, source, times, tags, or nutrition.
• Defaults are ink-saving: no images, ingredients above instructions, optional fields off.
• After you confirm, your browser or phone print sheet appears — choose a physical printer or Save as PDF / Microsoft Print to PDF.

If you open Printer Options from the preview, use Back to preview at the top of that Settings panel to return. The preview refreshes with your updated options.

Event Planner

The Event Planner lets you group recipes together for a meal, party, or any occasion. You can plan a single gathering or a multi-day schedule, then generate a combined shopping list for everything you need.

Click Event Planner in the sidebar to see your events. From the list you can:

• Create a new event — give it a name, an optional description, and a date or date range.
• Open an event to see its recipes, set servings targets, and generate a shopping list.
• Switch between Single event mode (a flat recipe list) and Schedule mode (recipes assigned to specific days and meal slots like Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner).

Adding Recipes to an Event

From an event's detail page, click Add Recipes to search your collection and add items.

• Each recipe row shows an Adjusted servings field alongside ×2 ×3 ×4 shortcut buttons. Click a button to scale that recipe by a fixed multiplier, or type any value directly into the field.
• For recipes that have a serving size, the original count is shown in the recipe's category line (e.g. "Appetizers · 8 servings") and the multiplier buttons calculate against that base automatically.
• For recipes without a serving size, the ×N buttons still work — ×3 triples every ingredient regardless of the original yield. You can also type any multiplier directly into the field.
• In Schedule mode, each recipe is also assigned to a specific day and meal slot (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, etc.).
• You can add a recipe to an event directly from the recipe view using the Add to Plan button.
• To remove a recipe from the event, click the × on its row.

Click Save Plan to persist changes to the recipe list and servings targets before generating the shopping list.

Event Shopping List

The shopping list combines all ingredients across every recipe in the event into a single consolidated list.

• Click Generate Shopping List on the event detail page. Any adjusted servings you've set will automatically scale ingredient quantities before combining.
• Duplicate ingredients are merged — for example, two recipes each needing 2 cups of flour produce a single "4 cups flour" line.
• The list suggests retail package sizes (e.g. "buy 1 dozen eggs") to make shopping easier. These suggestions are saved so future lists for the same ingredient generate instantly.
• Toggle Include pantry staples to show or hide common items like salt, pepper, and oil that you likely already have on hand.
• You can edit any line manually after generation, and check items off as you shop.

Tip: If you're doubling or tripling a recipe for a crowd, use the ×2, ×3, or ×4 buttons on each recipe row — the shopping list will scale ingredients accordingly. For a precise target (e.g. going from 4 to 6 servings), type the target number directly into the Adjusted servings field.

Printing an Event

On an event plan detail page, click Print next to Save. A dialog asks what to include — you can select one or more options:

• Menu only — recipe names with dates, meal slots, and servings. On a schedule plan, recipes are grouped by day (same as the on-screen list). The menu stays together across as many pages as needed.
• Shopping list — quantities, packages, and checkboxes matching the list in the app (including your edits and checkmarks). Starts on its own page when other sections are included.
• Full recipes — each recipe on its own page(s), scaled to the plan's adjusted servings, with plan date and meal type when available.

Your last choices are remembered for next time, but the options dialog always opens so you can change them. After you continue, the same print preview used for recipes appears — review, adjust Printer Options if needed, then print or save as PDF.

Managing Your Family

Go to Family in the sidebar to manage your household.

• Invite members — send an email invitation. They'll create an account and join your family collection automatically.
• Roles — Owner and Admin can manage members and settings. Members can create and edit recipes. Viewers can browse but not add anything.
• Usage — see how much storage and how many Smart Scans your household has used.

Settings & Profile

Go to Settings in the sidebar to manage your account.

• General — update your display name, email address, and password
• Appearance Theme — choose how the app looks. Four themes are available: Aurora (the default Northern Lights palette), Light, Dark, and Dark High Contrast. Your choice is saved per user and applies only to your account. Select from the dropdown or click a color swatch to preview instantly.
• Categories — create and organize recipe categories and subcategories
• Tags — manage tags for finding recipes quickly
• User Management — invite members and manage roles (Owner/Admin only)
• Account Settings — update your family collection name (Owner/Admin only)
• Printer Options — defaults for recipe and event printouts (see below)

Printer Options

Open Settings › Printer Options to set your personal print defaults. These are saved to your user account and apply everywhere you print.

• Images — No images (least ink, the default), main/prepared photos only, original recipe cards only, or all images.
• Layout — one column (ingredients above instructions) or two columns (ingredients | instructions).
• Optional content — turn on description, source, prep/cook times, tags, nutrition, or notes. Title, servings, ingredients, and instructions always print.

Paper size, orientation, color vs black-and-white, and duplex are controlled by your browser or phone print dialog — not by the app.

If you reach Printer Options from a print preview, a Back to preview button appears at the top so you can return and see your changes before printing.

Submitting a Support Request

Open Support in the sidebar to get help, report a problem, or suggest a feature.

1. Click New Request.
2. Choose a category:
   • Help — you have a question about how something works.
   • Bug — something isn't working as expected.
   • Enhancement — you have an idea for a new feature or improvement.
3. For Help requests, a reminder appears to check this Help guide first — you can still submit if you didn't find an answer.
4. Fill in a Subject and Description. The more detail the better: what you were trying to do, what happened, and any steps that reproduce the problem.
5. Optionally attach a recipe using the recipe picker (search or browse) — you can attach more than one.
6. Optionally attach a photo or file (image or PDF, up to 5 MB each). A screenshot of the problem is often the fastest way to explain it.
7. Click Send request. Your account information is included automatically so support has context.

Who can see requests? Owners and Admins can see all requests from their family. Members see only their own.

Tracking & Replying

Open Support in the sidebar to see your requests. Use the status filter dropdown to narrow the list.

Each request shows a live status:

• Pending review — your request was received and is waiting to be picked up.
• In progress — support is actively working on it.
• Waiting on you — support needs more information. Open the ticket and reply to continue.
• Closed — the request is resolved. The reason for closing is shown. Any linked development work stays visible in the ticket even after it closes.

Click any ticket to open the conversation thread and add a reply. Support will be notified of your response.