How to photograph an ingredient list so every name is read

Find the right panel first

• Start with the box. EU rules let the list appear on the outer packaging alone¹, and the FDA's guide places the ingredient declaration on the outer container when there is one.² A bottle taken out of its carton may not carry the list at all.
• Look for the word Ingredients. On EU packs the list starts with it.¹ On US packs it sits on an information panel, usually the back or a side.²
• Check tags, leaflets and peel-back labels. When a pack is too small or too decorative for the list, EU rules allow an enclosed or attached leaflet, label, tape, tag or card, referred to on the pack by abbreviated information or a symbol¹, and US rules a firmly attached tag, tape or card.³ Photograph that instead.
• Wipe the lens. A smear from a pocket is enough to blur small print.

Light, glare and focus

Text recognition reads letters best when their edges are sharp and the contrast is even across the list. Light decides both, so fix it first.

• Use soft, even light. Daylight from a window or a lamp to one side works better than a single bright spot. Avoid your own shadow falling across the list.
• Move the glare, not the phone. Glossy, metallic and clear packs reflect light in a band. Tilt the pack a little until the band slides off the words.
• Skip the flash on shiny packs. It can put a white spot right on the text.
• Give clear bottles a background. Hold a sheet of white paper behind a transparent bottle printed in white or pale ink, or a dark one behind it if the ink is dark.
• Hold still and let it focus. The app reads the text live and takes the photo by itself once the words are sharp.

Curved bottles, tubes and tiny print

A list printed around a curve bends away from the lens, and the letters at its edges shrink and blur. Do not try to fit the whole list into one photo at an angle. Hold the phone square to the part facing you, then turn the bottle and take the next part. The app is built for this: a long label can be read in parts, and each new photo adds the rest.

• Tubes: flatten the printed area gently with a thumb, and turn a tube over if the list runs onto the crimped end.
• Jars: if the list is on the base or the lid, hold the jar so that side faces a window rather than a ceiling light.
• Tiny print: move closer rather than zooming, stopping where the camera can still focus.

Small print is allowed. US rules set the ingredient list's letters at no less than 1/16 inch, about 1.6 mm, and allow 1/32 inch, about 0.8 mm, on packs with less than 12 square inches of label space; height is measured on a lower case o.³² The EU asks for indelible, easily legible and visible lettering, but Article 19 sets no minimum letter height.¹

Several languages on one pack

A pack sold in several countries may repeat its directions and warnings in several languages. The ingredient list is different. Each EU country decides the language of information such as the function, the precautions and the best-before wording, but the list uses the common ingredient names from the EU glossary everywhere.¹ So the names themselves do not change from one language to the next, and What is INCI? explains why they look the way they do.

Frame only the list. A translated direction caught at the edge of the photo can be read as extra names. If the result shows words that are not ingredients at all, they probably came from the text around the list.

Keep the end of the list, including "may contain"

The last lines of a list are where the small print gathers, so make sure the photo includes them:

• "May contain" or "+/-" introduces the colourants used across a make-up range sold in several shades¹, so some of them, such as CI 77891, may not be in your shade. US lists use "may contain" in the same way, and for colours added to some batches only to match a shade.³ See CI numbers in makeup.
• "May also contain" on a US list names alternatives a maker may use during a shortage.³
• Named fragrance substances, such as Linalool listed alongside Parfum, are part of the list wherever they fall. See EU fragrance allergen labels.
• (nano) after a name marks an ingredient present as a nanomaterial on EU packs.¹
• "And other ingredients" at the end of a US list stands for ingredients the FDA has accepted as trade secrets.³

After the scan: what to check

The app reads the label with Apple's on-device text recognition, on your iPhone, and the photos are not uploaded. The clearest photo of each scan is kept with its report, reduced in size, and the others are discarded once they have been read. You can also import a photo or paste the list. Then look over the result:

• Corrected names are shown with the text as printed. A clear misreading, such as a letter the camera mistook for a look-alike, is corrected and marked, and one tap undoes it.
• Questions appear where a reading is less certain, such as a missing letter or a different number. Compare the name with the pack before you answer.
• Unknown names stay unknown. They can be stray words from the text around the list, or a name cut off at the edge of the photo.
• The last few names can be lost to a curve or a fold, so check that the result ends where the pack does.

No camera to hand? Copy the list from the product page into the ingredient checker, and see how to find a cosmetic ingredient list online for why a web list can differ from the pack.