Capture and scanning

Collections. can fill a lot of the form for you from a barcode, a plate number or a photo of a label. On iPhone the camera is a tab of its own. On the Mac, drop files onto the Library or the menu bar item.

The Camera tab (iPhone and iPad)

The Camera tab offers Take Photo and, for some collection types, a scan action: Scan Artwork Label, Scan Bottle Label, Scan Card, Scan ISBN Barcode or Scan Box Barcode. A photo can become a Draft or be attached to an existing item. Drafts wait in the New Item form until you complete them.

Smart fill by type

Type	What you give it	What it fills
Books	ISBN, scanned or typed, then Look Up	Title, author, publisher, year and the cover image, from Open Library
Vehicles	Licence plate or VIN, then Look Up	Make, model and year, from the New Zealand vehicle register
LEGO	Set number or the box barcode	Set name, year, piece count and box art, from a bundled catalogue
Wine & Spirits	A photo of the bottle label	Producer, name, vintage, region, varietal, bottle size, type, and an alcohol note. Read on the device; nothing leaves it
Trading Cards	A photo of the card	Name, game, card number and year, matched against a bundled index of Magic, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! names. Read on the device
Art	A photo of a wall label	Title, artist, year and medium for review before saving
Stamps	Country and year or a catalogue number	Details from a catalogue provider where one is configured; otherwise an Online menu of prepared searches

On the Mac, a photo-based smart fill offers Scan with…: Continue on iPhone hands the scan to your phone's camera and sends the result back to the open form, Choose a Photo on This Mac… reads a file, and Use This Mac's Camera uses the built-in camera. Barcode lookups on the Mac also accept the number typed in.

Label scanning on iPhone opens a viewfinder with a guide for the label, a torch switch and portrait or landscape framing. After Capture label, the app reads the text and shows a pre-filled form to review. If it cannot read the label, it says so and offers Try Again.

Dropping files on the Mac

• Drop images onto the Library grid and each one becomes a Draft, titled from its file name and filed into the active collection. Folders and PDFs are skipped with a note saying why.
• Drop images, or paste, onto the menu bar item to create Drafts from anywhere. See Menu bar, widgets and shortcuts.
• For a whole folder of photos, PDFs and a spreadsheet, use the Folder of Files import. See Importing.

QR codes and printed labels

• QR Code on an item's Tags & AR menu shows a code that opens the item in Collections. and prints a single label captioned Scan with Collections.
• Print Labels… on a collection prepares a sheet of QR labels for every item. Choose a Label Size of Standard (21 per sheet), Large (12), Compact (24) or Mini (65). Detailed Label adds fields you pick under Label Variables: Title, maker, Year, Medium, Dimensions, Edition and Location. Press Prepare, then Print or Share the sheet.

Scanning a label with the iPhone camera opens the item.

NFC tags (iPhone)

NFC Tag on an item's Tags & AR menu offers Write Tag and Read Tag. Writing stores a link to the item and a short plain-text label of title, maker and year on a blank tag. Any phone with an NFC reader shows the label; a phone with Collections. installed opens the record. Reading a tag from the Home Screen opens the item directly.

The Store section shows the Collections. NFC tag, a coin-sized tag with the mark on both faces and an adhesive mount, with a Register Interest button. The Store is hidden by default; turn it on in Settings ▸ Sidebar on the Mac or Settings ▸ General ▸ Show Store on iPhone.

3D capture and AR (iPhone and iPad)

• Scan in 3D… on the item's 3D Model menu guides you around the object with the camera and builds a model that attaches to the item. It needs a device with LiDAR, such as an iPhone Pro or an iPad Pro. Other devices see a message saying capture is not supported.
• Import USDZ… attaches a model you already have. Preview 3D opens the viewer on both platforms; on iPhone it includes a view-in-your-space option.
• Place on Wall shows the item on a real wall through the camera at its true size. Drag to move it, rotate and pinch to scale.