Scan a page.
Keep the language.
Every reader knows the feeling: you look up a sentence, you understand it for ten seconds, and by the next page it is gone. Lingden turns the page in front of you into flashcards that come back until they stick.
Free to start · Scanning included in Pro · Your photo never leaves your phone
The book in your hands just became your deck.
That novel you gave up on. The menu you couldn't read. The sign at the station. Hold your phone over the page, pick the sentences worth keeping — and they come back as flashcards you'll actually remember.
- Real sentences, kept word for word. We never rewrite the author — the card is the line exactly as it was printed.
- Every word explained. Translation, meaning per word, IPA pronunciation and audio — the same card you'd get from our curated decks.
- Your phone does the reading. The photo is never uploaded. Only the sentences you choose leave your device.
- Name your collections. "Bok 1", "Oslo signs", "Café menu" — review a book chapter by chapter.
Scanning is a Pro feature on iPhone and Android · See Pro pricing
Han hadde ventet hele kvelden.
Regnet slo mot ruta i lange kast,
og gata nedenfor lå tom og blank.
Ingen hadde ringt. Ingen kom.
Han tenkte på det hun sa sist.
Kanskje var det ingenting.
Det var allerede mørkt da hun kom hjem.
Hun snakket lavt om det som hadde skjedd.
Ingen sa noe på lenge etterpå.
Vinduet stod åpent, og det luktet regn.
Hun satte seg ned uten å ta av jakken.
Klokken på veggen tikket altfor høyt.
Word by word
Hun(hʉn; she)snakket(ˈsnɑkət; spoke)lavt(lɑːft; quietly)om(ɔm; about)det(deː; that)som(sɔm; which)hadde(ˈhɑdə; had)skjedd(ʃedː; happened).
She spoke quietly about what had happened.
Hold your phone over the page
Example: holding a phone over a novel in Norwegian turns the sentence "Hun snakket lavt om det som hadde skjedd." into a flashcard meaning "She spoke quietly about what had happened.", with every word translated and the pronunciation of snakket shown.
Up to 3 pages a scan · 10 cards at a time · Works offline while it reads
Page to flashcard in about ten seconds.
Point and shoot
The scanner finds the page edges, straightens it and cleans it up — up to three pages in one go. Or pick a photo you already took.
Pick your sentences
Lingden reads the page on your device and lists the real sentences it found. Tick the ones you want — or sweep a finger across any words to grab exactly the phrase you mean.
Get real cards
Each sentence becomes a full flashcard: translation, every word explained, IPA pronunciation, audio, level and topic. Straight into your spaced-repetition queue.
If it has words on it, it is a deck.
The language you actually need is rarely in a textbook. It is on the menu, the sign, the letter from the council.
The novel you stalled on
Read a page, scan the three sentences that beat you, keep going. The book stops being a wall.
A menu you couldn’t order from
Scan it at the table. Tomorrow those dishes are cards, and you order without pointing.
Signs, notices, tickets
The station board, the parking rules, the note on the door. Real language nobody writes textbooks about.
Newspapers and magazines
Current words, current phrasing — the vocabulary that actually shows up in conversation this month.
Letters and forms
The bank letter, the lease, the doctor’s form. Scan the sentence you didn’t understand and never lose it again.
Screenshots on your phone
A message, a post, a subtitle. Take a screenshot, pick it from your photos, sweep the line you want.
Your phone reads the page. The photo stays there.
Most scanning tools upload your picture to a server and read it there. Lingden does the reading on your own device — Apple Vision on iPhone, Google ML Kit on Android. We never receive the image, and we never store it. The only thing that reaches us is the handful of sentences you deliberately chose, so we can build their cards.
- The photo is never uploaded — not to us, not to anyone
- Text recognition happens offline, on your phone
- Only the sentences you tick are ever sent
- No ads, no trackers, no data resale — on any tier
Translate it, or actually learn it.
A camera translator answers the question in front of you. A hand-built Anki deck remembers it — if you have an hour spare. This does both.
| Lingden scan | Camera translator | Anki by hand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads a printed page from your camera | |||
| You still have it tomorrow | |||
| Every word translated, not just the sentence | DIY | ||
| IPA pronunciation on every word | DIY | ||
| Audio you can replay | Partial | DIY | |
| Spaced repetition brings it back | |||
| Photo never leaves your device | |||
| Zero typing, zero setup | |||
| Keeps the sentence word-for-word | Partial |
Reads a printed page from your camera
You still have it tomorrow
Every word translated, not just the sentence
IPA pronunciation on every word
Audio you can replay
Spaced repetition brings it back
Photo never leaves your device
Zero typing, zero setup
Keeps the sentence word-for-word
Comparisons reflect publicly available features as of 2026. Not affiliated with any of these brands.
Questions, answered.
How do I turn a book into flashcards?
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Open Lingden on your iPhone or Android phone, tap Add card, then "Scan a book". Point the camera at the page — it auto-crops and straightens it — and Lingden reads the text on your device. You get a list of the real sentences it found; tick the ones worth learning and tap Add. Each one comes back as a full flashcard with translation, word-by-word meanings, pronunciation and audio.
Does my photo get uploaded anywhere?
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No. The page is read entirely on your own device — Apple Vision on iPhone, Google ML Kit on Android. The picture never leaves your phone and we never store it. Only the sentences you actually choose are sent to our server, and only so we can build the cards for them.
What if it grabs the wrong text?
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You are always in control. Switch to "Select text" and sweep one finger from the first word to the last — everything in between is selected in reading order, and you can erase and try again. You can also merge two sentences into one card, or edit any sentence before adding it if the reader misread a letter.
How many cards can I make from one scan?
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Up to 3 pages per scan and 10 cards per batch, so a card is a deliberate choice rather than a dump of a whole chapter. You can scan again immediately — there is a generous hourly cap that normal reading never comes close to.
Does it rewrite the sentence?
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Never. The card keeps the author’s sentence exactly as printed — we only fix obvious scanning artefacts. What we add is the layer around it: the translation, what each word means in that form, how it sounds, and which level and topic it belongs to.
Which languages can I scan?
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Every Latin-script language in Lingden — Norwegian, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Turkish — plus Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Russian, Greek and Arabic scanning is on the way; everything else in those languages works as normal today.
Do I need Pro?
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Yes — scanning is part of Lingden Pro, along with unlimited languages, verb conjugation packs and a higher daily card limit. Pro is $3/month or $29/year on the web, roughly 40% cheaper than subscribing through the App Store.
Can I scan on the web version?
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Not yet. Scanning lives in the iPhone and Android apps because that is where the camera and the on-device reader are. Your cards sync everywhere, though — scan on your phone at the café, review on your laptop that evening.
Pick up the book again.
You already own the best textbook you will ever have — it is the thing you actually wanted to read. Lingden just makes sure none of it slips away.
7-day money-back guarantee · Cancel anytime · See Pro pricing