How this works in your browser
Two separate steps run in sequence, and knowing where one ends helps explain the results. First, a WebAssembly build of the Tesseract OCR engine reads the card image and returns whatever text it can recognise. Second, that text is scanned with pattern matching for structures that identify themselves: an at sign flanked by text and a domain marks an email, a run of digits with separators marks a phone number, a leading www or a domain suffix marks a website. Those fields are reliable because their shape is unambiguous. A person’s name or job title has no such signature, which is the honest boundary of a pattern-matching approach and the reason the full recognised text is offered alongside the detected fields. Everything, including the vCard, is produced in your browser.
Business Card Scanner vs. traditional online converters
| Feature | Business Card Scanner (in-browser) | Traditional online converters |
|---|---|---|
| File upload required | No - never leaves your device | Yes - file is sent to a server |
| Processing queue | None - starts instantly | Often, especially at peak times |
| Watermark on output | Never | Common on free plans |
| Usage limits | None - free, unlimited use | Often capped per day or file size |
| Works offline once loaded | Yes, for most tools | No - requires a live connection |
| Account required | No | Often, for anything beyond a trial |
Who uses Business Card Scanner
After a conference or event
Work through a stack of collected cards and get each contact into your phone without typing.
Building a client list
Capture supplier and client details into importable vCards as you receive them.
Clearing out a card holder
Digitise an accumulated drawer of cards so the paper can finally be recycled.
Keeping contacts private
Process cards containing other people’s details without uploading them to a third-party service.
How to use Business Card Scanner
- 1
Open the Business Card Scanner
Go to tools.slaytic.com and open the Business Card Scanner. No sign-up or account required.
- 2
Photograph or upload the card
Fill the frame with the card in even light, using the camera or an existing photo.
- 3
Review the extracted fields
Check the detected email, phone and website against the card, and correct anything misread.
- 4
Export the vCard
Download a .vcf file and import it into your phone or email contacts.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is the contact extraction?
It is best-effort: OCR reads the text, then pattern matching looks for email, phone, and website formats. Always review the extracted fields, since unusual fonts, stylised logos, or low-quality photos can cause misreads.
What format can I export the contact as?
A standard vCard (.vcf) file that most phone and email contact apps can import directly.
Is this the same as a real AI contact-parsing service?
No. This uses OCR plus straightforward pattern matching, not a trained NLP model, which keeps it fully free and browser-based, but with less nuance than a dedicated paid service.
Why does it find the email but not the name?
Because emails, phone numbers and web addresses have recognisable shapes that a pattern can match, and names do not. A line of text is not distinguishable from a name by structure alone, which is exactly the judgement a trained model provides and pattern matching cannot. The full recognised text is there for you to pick the name out of.
How should I photograph the card?
Fill the frame with the card, keep the camera square to it, and use even light with no glare across the printing. Cards are small, so distance costs you resolution faster than with a full page, and OCR accuracy depends heavily on how many pixels each character occupies.
Which cards give the worst results?
Anything designed to look striking rather than to be read: light text on dark backgrounds, metallic or embossed printing, script and display fonts, text over a photograph, and vertical or rotated layouts. Plain type on plain stock reads almost perfectly.
Are the card details sent anywhere?
No. The OCR engine and the pattern matching both run in your browser, and the vCard is generated locally, so someone else’s contact details never pass through a server.