Scanning cards

The Scan tab turns your camera into the fastest way to register a collection. Point at a card and Silvane identifies the exact printing: set, collector number and language, not just the card name.

How recognition works

The scanner recognizes a card by its picture, on your phone. It finds the card in the camera image, compares it with every printing it knows, and adds the one it matches to the tray. Nothing is sent anywhere to recognize a card.

Many cards share one artwork across several printings. For those the scanner also reads the line at the bottom of the card (collector number, set and language) and picks the printing that line names.

Reading the outline: with no card in view the camera reads Point camera at a Magic card. When the scanner finds a card it draws a blue outline around it, following the card's real edges. The outline turns green once the card is in your tray, and the detection bar below fills in with the printing it chose.

• Any angle, in hand or on the table. Keep all four edges of the card in the picture.
• Only a card face adds a card. A card back, a playmat, a book, a phone screen or a deck box in view adds nothing to the tray.
• One copy per picture. Holding the same card in view does not add it twice. Another printing of that card with a different picture is added on its own, so five Forests with five pictures scan one after another. For a second copy with the same picture, tap the round arrow in the detection bar.
• Languages. The scanner tells English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese cards apart, and saves the copy as the real printing in that language. See Card language.
• Foil or normal. When the scanner reads the bottom line, the mark in it (a star on a foil, a dot on the rest) sets the finish. For the other cards the finish follows Preferred finish.
• The List. A reprint from The List, Mystery Booster 2 or the Unfinity List is told from the original by the symbol in its corner.
• Set lock: lock one or more sets and the scanner saves the card's printing from those sets. See Scan settings.
• Scans queue in the tray, so you can scan stack after stack without stopping.

The screen stays awake while you are on the Scan tab and releases as soon as you leave. The LIVE pill at the top is also the pause button: tap it to pause the scanner, and again to resume. The ? button opens Scan tips.

The scanner download

The scanner needs its own files on the phone, downloaded once. The download starts by itself when you open the app, and it keeps going if you leave the Scan tab. It uses Wi-Fi or mobile data, unless Download updates in Storage & Sync is set to Wi-Fi only.

Until it finishes, the Scan tab shows Set up the scanner with two steps: Camera access and Scanner download, with its progress. With no connection it reads Waiting for a connection and starts by itself when one is back. With too little free space it reads Not enough storage. On mobile data with Wi-Fi only set, it reads Waits for Wi-Fi and starts on Wi-Fi; Download on mobile data starts it now.

After that the scanner works with no connection. New sets reach it by themselves: the app downloads a small update, usually a few kilobytes, when there is one.

Two things still need a connection:

• A card in another language whose printing is not in the catalog on your phone. The scanner reads Connect to scan in and the language, and adds the card by itself once you are back online with the card still in view.
• A card newer than your last catalog update. The scanner reads Connect to scan this card.

Card language

On Auto the scanner tells the card's language from the card itself. When Scryfall has the same set and collector number in that language, the copy is saved as that printing: its own art, price and collector data.

When Scryfall has no picture of that set and number in that language, the copy keeps the set and number the scanner recognized and carries the language as a tag. A Spanish BFZ Forest is saved as BFZ 274 in Spanish, never as another set's Forest, and the scanner says ES copy saved with the English picture.

Pick a fixed language in Scan settings to save every scan in that language, whatever language the card in your hand is printed in. The same rule applies: that language's printing at the same set and number, else the recognized printing tagged with the language.

You can also change a copy's language after the scan: in the tray's Language row before committing, or later from the card's edit screen. See Card languages.

Scan settings

The gear icon on the scan screen opens Scan settings:

• Locked sets: pick one or more sets, then choose the mode (the Strict/Priority control only appears once a set is locked). When the card has a printing in a locked set, the scanner saves that one. When it has none, Strict turns the card away with a message and Priority saves the printing it recognized.
• Preferred finish: Auto, Normal, Foil or Etched. Auto takes the printing's first available finish; an explicit pick applies whenever the printing has it. The finish mark read on the card comes first.
• Card language: Auto, or one of the ten languages as a fixed language. See Card language.

All of these persist across restarts — they are preferences, not a session.

Sound and vibration are not here — they have their own sheet behind the speaker button, called Scan feedback: one Sound switch and one Vibration switch, both firing on the same moment, when a card lands in the tray. There is no separate detection beep.

Where scans go

Committed scans land in the binder, list or deck you pick when saving the tray — or into a sale or purchase order, opened locked the same way from the order itself. Scanning into a specific place is one tap fewer: open the binder → + → Scan, or the deck → Add → Scan — the scanner opens locked onto it and the tray's save button commits straight there, no picker (deck scans land in the mainboard). A free scan, from the Scan tab, asks for the destination each time. The picker opens on the tab of the last destination you used and, under Last used, lists it first (Choosing the destination). The one you pick becomes the default of Add card.

On an empty Binders tab, Scan cards first names your first binder; then Open the scanner opens the scanner locked onto it (An empty collection).

Getting a higher hit rate

The ? button on the scan screen opens Scan tips, the same list the app ships: showing the whole card, what the blue and green outlines mean, one card at a time, avoiding glare, adding the same card again, checking the printing, and pausing.

Two more that are not in that sheet:

• Use set lock for a box or a bulk lot from one set. It removes ambiguity between reprints.
• Confirm the finish in the tray. The camera cannot always tell a foil from its normal twin.