The camera fills the full screen so you can see exactly what you are capturing. Point it at any text — printed or handwritten — and tap to take a photo.

Sensory Reader camera view showing a hotel fire instructions document with Crop, Scan, and Share buttons at the bottom

Camera controls

  • Capture button (large circle, bottom-centre) — tap to take a photo. The display freezes instantly so you can see what was captured.
  • Zoom — use a two-finger pinch gesture to zoom in (up to 10×) or zoom out. Useful for reading small print from a distance.
  • Photo library icon — tap to select an existing image from your device instead of capturing a new one.
  • Settings icon (gear, top-left) — view your purchase status and configure app preferences.
  • Close button (✕, top-right) — close the camera view.
Sensory Reader bottom toolbar showing the Scan button highlighted with a red box, alongside Crop and Share buttons

After capturing an image

Once you have taken a photo, three buttons appear at the bottom:

  • Crop — open the crop editor to select the specific area of text you want to recognise
  • Scan — start text recognition on the captured image
  • Share — share the captured image via the iOS share sheet

Cropping an image

  1. Tap Crop after capturing an image.
  2. Drag the corners or edges of the crop rectangle to resize the area.
  3. Drag the centre of the crop area to move it around the image.
  4. Pinch to zoom the underlying image for more precise positioning.
  5. Tap Apply to confirm the crop, or Cancel to go back.
Tip: Cropping to just the text area before scanning improves accuracy — especially when a page contains images, borders, or other non-text elements alongside the text you want to read.