Why can nothing read my receipt photos?

Usually shadow, angle or faded thermal paper. Reshoot flat, straight down, with light behind you, on a contrasting surface. That fixes most failures without changing software.

Is a scan better than a photo?

Much better. A flatbed scanner gives a flat, straight, evenly lit page with none of the perspective distortion a photo has. If you have a scanner, use it.

What about faded receipts?

If you cannot read it, software cannot either. Thermal receipts fade within months, faster in heat. Photograph them when you get them, not at tax time.

Guide

How to get data off photos of receipts

A folder of phone photos of crumpled receipts is the worst case for any document reader. Here is why, and how to make it work anyway.

Short answer

Photos fail for four reasons: thermal paper fading, shadows, perspective and creases. Fixing how you take the photo helps more than any software choice.

Why receipts are harder than invoices

Thermal paper fades: Most till receipts are printed by heat, not ink, and fade in months. Warm car glove boxes destroy them fastest. If a receipt matters, photograph it the day you get it.
They are never flat: A curled receipt bends the text, which reading software handles far worse than a straight line.
Shadows: Your own hand or phone usually casts one across the middle of the receipt, exactly where the total is.
Perspective: Photographed at an angle, the far end is smaller than the near end and lines are not parallel. Flat scanners never have this problem, which is why scans are easier than photos.

How to photograph a receipt so it can be read

1Flatten it. Put a book on it for a minute if it is curled.
2Put it on a plain surface with contrast, so a white receipt goes on a dark table.
3Shoot straight down, not at an angle. Your phone will show a level indicator if you turn it on.
4Get the light behind you, not between you and the receipt, so you are not photographing your own shadow.
5Fill the frame with the receipt. Cropping later loses resolution you cannot get back.

This is worth more than any software choice. A well taken photo is read correctly by almost anything. A bad one defeats everything.

What your phone already does

Both iPhone and Android can scan documents natively. On iPhone, Notes has a Scan Documents option in the camera menu. On Android, Google Drive has Scan.

Both flatten perspective, crop the edges and increase contrast, which fixes most of the problems above before any software sees the file. They are free and already on your phone.

If you already have a shoebox of bad photos

You will not get a hundred percent, and any tool claiming otherwise is not being straight with you.

The useful measure is not how many it reads, but whether it tells you which ones it could not. A tool that returns a total for every receipt including the ones it could not read has handed you a spreadsheet with invented numbers in it, and you have no way to find them.

Sort by which ones need a human, do those by hand, and accept that some faded thermal receipts are simply gone.

Common questions

Why can nothing read my receipt photos?: Usually shadow, angle or faded thermal paper. Reshoot flat, straight down, with light behind you, on a contrasting surface. That fixes most failures without changing software.
Is a scan better than a photo?: Much better. A flatbed scanner gives a flat, straight, evenly lit page with none of the perspective distortion a photo has. If you have a scanner, use it.
What about faded receipts?: If you cannot read it, software cannot either. Thermal receipts fade within months, faster in heat. Photograph them when you get them, not at tax time.

Solven builds custom software and automation for Australian businesses. If you have a job like this that no tool quite fits, that is the work we do.

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