Scanning text with your camera using Mote

Scan Text turns a printed page into something Mote can read aloud. Point the camera at a book, a worksheet or a sign.

Taking the picture

Choose Scan Text on the Add tab, then either Scan Document to use the camera or Import from Photos to use a picture you already have. The camera finds the edges of the page, straightens it and removes shadows for you.

Reading part of a page

You do not have to read the whole thing. Drag a box around the part you want and choose Read Selected Area, or take the lot with Read Whole Photo.

What you get back

The photo itself stays on screen and the words are highlighted on the image as they are read, so a student can follow the text on the page in front of them rather than in a separate pane.

If the scan does not work

Mote checks the picture before processing it and asks you to retake anything too blurry to read. If no text is found, try again with better light, hold the camera square to the page, and make sure the whole area you want is inside the frame.

Saving scans

Scans can be saved to your Photos library automatically. The setting is under Scanning in Settings.

Once the text is out, everything in Reading aloud on iPhone and iPad applies to it.