JotNot

A blog for those who like not to jot.

iPhone Feature Request

Apr 9

Tips for the best quality scans

The iPhone has a fixed lens camera so if you get closer than about 8 inches to the document, the image gets blurry.  Here are a couple of tips to get the best quality scans:

  • Make sure the document is flat
  • Hold the iPhone at least 8 inches away
  • Ensure that the document is well lit
  • Use black and white mode when you can
  • If the text is still too faint, try maxing out the contrast

Usually these steps will produce a scan of good enough quality for most people (for example the quality in our screen shots on the iTunes Store which are not retouched).  If you need extremely high quality scans of smaller documents (like receipts and business cards) you can get a macro lens attachment for your iPhone (see the below for information on the Griffin Clarifi).

-Abe

Posted at 8:00am

Apr 6
The new version of JotNot for the iPhone is out!  Version 1.1 adds a lot of features, improves perfornace, and reduces the memory footprint.  More specifically here’s what’s new: Settings (click the info button) Black and white mode Contrast control Faster processing Timestamp option Save original option Disable enhancement option Improved UI (new selector and scroll-view) These features allow you to use JotNot as a photography application.  Take a look the picture above—Alec took this in NYC by turning off enhancement, boosting the contrast, turning on the timestamp, and cropping the image. -Abe

The new version of JotNot for the iPhone is out!  Version 1.1 adds a lot of features, improves perfornace, and reduces the memory footprint.  More specifically here’s what’s new:

  • Settings (click the info button)
  • Black and white mode
  • Contrast control
  • Faster processing
  • Timestamp option
  • Save original option
  • Disable enhancement option
  • Improved UI (new selector and scroll-view)

These features allow you to use JotNot as a photography application.  Take a look the picture above—Alec took this in NYC by turning off enhancement, boosting the contrast, turning on the timestamp, and cropping the image.

-Abe
Posted at 3:04pm

Apr 3
Here’s a great little contraption called an iPhone Scandock that works well with JotNot.  It works by holding your phone the optimal distance from the document and it reduces jitter so that you get a sharp scan everytime. It is being sold by Kyle A. Koch through Ponoko which is an online fab company.  You can buy a packaged version (made from corregated cardboard) or you can fab your own from any available material of your choosing.  We think it is a neat idea! -Abe

Here’s a great little contraption called an iPhone Scandock that works well with JotNot.  It works by holding your phone the optimal distance from the document and it reduces jitter so that you get a sharp scan everytime.

It is being sold by Kyle A. Koch through Ponoko which is an online fab company.  You can buy a packaged version (made from corregated cardboard) or you can fab your own from any available material of your choosing.  We think it is a neat idea!

-Abe
Posted at 12:20pm

Mar 27
I just recently got a Griffin Clarifi case for my iPhone 3G which has a macro lens attachment built in to try it out.  I have found that it can dramtically improve the sharpness of iPhone’s built in camera in close range.  The picture of the business card above was taken on my iPhone 3G with the Clarifi and then processed with JotNot for the iPhone.Clarifi improves images of business cards, reciepts, and other documents where trying to capture the maximum number of pixels requires holding the iPhone very close to the document.  The reason for this is that the iPhone camera has a fixed-focus lens that Apple most likely set to focus at infinity.  When used on close subjects the image normally comes out very fuzzy.  The Clarifi is not helpful for all documents, however.  In particular, full page letter-sized documents are so large that you have to hold your iPhone far from them to fit them in.  At this range the normal iPhone lens works well enough. You don’t have to take my word for it, though. There is a great in depth review of the Clarifi case at http://www.theiphoneblog.com. They give it ★★★★★. They also provide lots of close-ups of the case as well a few before/after pictures showing the performance of the macro lens. -Abe

I just recently got a Griffin Clarifi case for my iPhone 3G which has a macro lens attachment built in to try it out.  I have found that it can dramtically improve the sharpness of iPhone’s built in camera in close range.  The picture of the business card above was taken on my iPhone 3G with the Clarifi and then processed with JotNot for the iPhone.

Clarifi improves images of business cards, reciepts, and other documents where trying to capture the maximum number of pixels requires holding the iPhone very close to the document.  The reason for this is that the iPhone camera has a fixed-focus lens that Apple most likely set to focus at infinity.  When used on close subjects the image normally comes out very fuzzy.  The Clarifi is not helpful for all documents, however.  In particular, full page letter-sized documents are so large that you have to hold your iPhone far from them to fit them in.  At this range the normal iPhone lens works well enough.

You don’t have to take my word for it, though. There is a great in depth review of the Clarifi case at http://www.theiphoneblog.com. They give it ★★★★★. They also provide lots of close-ups of the case as well a few before/after pictures showing the performance of the macro lens.

-Abe
Posted at 4:03pm

Mar 21
JotNot Photo Effects! A couple of our friends at Plum Ventures, Inc have found a novel use for JotNot—as a digital photographic effect! Take a look at some of their other work here.

JotNot Photo Effects!

A couple of our friends at Plum Ventures, Inc have found a novel use for JotNot—as a digital photographic effect! Take a look at some of their other work here.
Posted at 10:19am

Mar 20
Do you hit “Main” or “Process” accidently (iPhone client)? Here’s a tip that might help you avoid accidently hitting the “Main” or “Process” buttons while selecting the region of interest on the iPhone client.  You do not have to touch the corners of the blue rectangle to drag them! Touching anywhere on the screen automatically selects the nearest corner.   So in particular, you can drag the top-left and top-right corners without clicking near the buttons.  This can also help you position the corners more precisely, because you finger isn’t covering the corner you are dragging.  Hope this tips helps! -Abe

Do you hit “Main” or “Process” accidently (iPhone client)?

Here’s a tip that might help you avoid accidently hitting the “Main” or “Process” buttons while selecting the region of interest on the iPhone client.  You do not have to touch the corners of the blue rectangle to drag them! Touching anywhere on the screen automatically selects the nearest corner.   So in particular, you can drag the top-left and top-right corners without clicking near the buttons.  This can also help you position the corners more precisely, because you finger isn’t covering the corner you are dragging.  Hope this tips helps!

-Abe
Posted at 6:31am

Mar 19

Great JotNot demo at “The Seattle Specialist”

A big thanks to Jim Reppond, one of our users, for making this excellent video on how to use JotNot! Jim demonstrates each step in using JotNot and also gives some great uses for real estate professionals and others.

-Nick
Posted at 7:46pm

Mar 18

JotNot iPhone "resetting"

We have been getting some reports of the JotNot iPhone app “resetting” by going to back the welcome screen mid-processing.  We suspect this is happening because the phone is low on memory (image processing takes up a lot of memory).

For now, a good workaround is to reboot your phone (i.e. completely shut it down and then restart it), and retry using JotNot (you can just import the image you already took).  To do that please do the following:

  1. hold down the power button until the red slider appears, and
  2. slide it to shut off your phone; then
  3. wait a few seconds, and press the power button again to restart your phone

This frees up any memory that other apps or the iPhone OS may have allocated.  This is especially useful if you have not rebooted your phone in a long time (FYI, you shouldn’t have to do this every time, just once).  We are working on a update that will address this shortly so stay tuned. In the mean time please do not hesitate to email us at support@jotnot.com if you are having any problems.

-Abe

Posted at 7:41am

Mar 17

JotNot at TechCrunch!

Jason Kincaid over at TechCrunch just wrote a great article about us.  Check it out here!

Posted at 6:54pm

iPhone and Android updates

We’ve been working really hard on the iPhone and Android JotNot applications. We’ve just released a standalone iPhone version! You can learn more about it at http://jotnot.com/iphone/. If you just want to skip all of that and get straight to downloading it you can get it from iTunes here.

Buy JotNot on iTunes

The iPhone application is slightly different from the current Android application. All of the processing is done on the phone itself. None of your data is sent to the web, which means you can now process images of whiteboards or documents containing confidential or sensitive information that you wouldn’t want to share.

Look for an update in the very near future for the Android app which will make it standalone as well.  In the mean time we have extended the beta until April 10th.

-Nick

Posted at 6:07pm