Step-by-step guides to digitize your notes.

Pick the guide that matches what you’re scanning

The right scanning approach depends on the source. Handwritten lecture notes need different technique than a glossy textbook page, and a classroom whiteboard has its own challenges (glare, perspective, partial erasure). Each guide below covers the specific mistakes that drop OCR accuracy from 95% to 70% in that context, plus the timing and review workflow that actually compounds over a semester.

• How to Digitize Lecture Notes: the core daily workflow for handwritten notebooks. Covers different lecture types (humanities vs STEM vs lab), when to scan, and a concrete review pattern that pairs scanning with active recall.
• How to Scan Whiteboard Notes: for capturing classroom whiteboards, meeting boards, and collaborative diagrams. Handles glare, multi-shot strategies for content that gets erased mid-lecture, and what to capture beyond the board itself.
• How to Digitize Textbook Pages: for printed textbooks, library books, and rented copies. Covers copyright-safe scanning for personal study, chapter-length efficiency, and how to handle diagrams, tables, and dense academic typography.

What you’ll need

A smartphone with a working camera, the source material (notes, board, or book), and good lighting are the universal requirements. The specific app you use changes how much manual work you do afterward — the free CamNotes converter works in any browser, and the CamNotes app (currently in pre-launch — join the waitlist for early access) adds unlimited scanning, AI summaries, flashcard generation, and full organization.

What to do after digitizing

Digitization is the start. The compounding study benefit comes from what you do with the digital version: search across courses, summarize dense chapters, generate flashcards for spaced repetition, and take AI-generated practice quizzes. See How to Study Effectively with AI for the full workflow.