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Scanner imports let a document scanner deliver recipe pages to Viandly without requiring direct browser access to the scanner. Viandly receives PDF or image attachments at a private address and places each delivery in your Inbox for review.

Scanner receiving requires scanner access on your account and must be enabled in the Viandly environment. Closed-beta policy can provide this entitlement while the beta is active.

Create the receiving address

1. Open Account Settings.
2. Select Scanner Imports.
3. Select Create scanner address.
4. Record the address shown under Receiving address.

The address is unique to your Viandly account. It is a write-only delivery capability, not a mailbox you sign into or read with an email application.

Configure scan to email

Open the scanner's administration interface and add the Viandly receiving address as a scan-to-email destination. The exact labels depend on the scanner manufacturer.

Viandly supplies only the destination address. Your scanner must already be able to send outbound email through its manufacturer, your email provider, or an SMTP service configured on the scanner. Viandly does not provide those sender credentials.

Recommended starting settings are:

• a searchable PDF at 300 dpi in grayscale for most printed recipe pages;
• PDF for multi-page or duplex recipes so page order remains intact;
• scanner OCR enabled when it adds a selectable text layer without removing the original page image;
• color instead of grayscale when colored text, backgrounds, highlighting, or annotations carry information;
• JPEG, PNG, or TIFF for individual page images, using high-quality rather than aggressive compression;
• one coherent recipe or related recipe set per delivery when practical. AI vision can create separate drafts for independent recipes found together and keeps dependent preparations together as one structured recipe.

Most scanners generate a generic email subject and attachment name. That is normal. Viandly shows the available subject, attachment names, and arrival time in the Inbox; none of those labels need to describe the recipe for embedded-text extraction, local OCR, or AI vision to work. Before processing, these values identify only the incoming delivery. A recipe title becomes available after Viandly understands the content and creates a draft.

Good scanner OCR gives Viandly a fast embedded-text path. The preserved page image remains useful when OCR is weak and you choose AI vision instead. See Analyze scanner recipes with AI for format, resolution, color-mode, cropping, and duplex recommendations.

The message must contain an actual PDF or image attachment. A cloud-storage link in the message body does not give Viandly the file.

Tested setup: Brother ADS-1800W with Gmail

The Brother ADS-1800W has been tested as a standalone scan-to-Viandly appliance. It did not require a scanner driver or a permanently running computer:

1. On the scanner LCD, join the Wi-Fi network and enter its password.
2. Find the scanner's assigned IP address and open that address in a browser.
3. On the first visit, sign in as the scanner administrator. The initial administrator password is printed on a sticker on the bottom of the device. The scanner requires you to replace that initial password before it provides access to the SMTP configuration screens.
4. In the scanner web interface, configure the outgoing mail server:
   • server: smtp.gmail.com;
   • port: 587;
   • security: TLS/STARTTLS;
   • authentication: SMTP-AUTH; and
   • username: the complete Gmail or Google Workspace email address.
5. In the Google account, create an app password for the scanner and enter it as the SMTP password. Google describes this as a 16-character password and displays it in four space-separated groups. In the tested ADS-1800W configuration, entering the displayed spaces was required.
6. Add the complete private Viandly receiving address to the scanner address book. This avoids entering the long destination from the LCD for every scan.
7. Configure a Scan & Send shortcut. The scanner lets you choose its subject, one-line message body, and maximum attachment size. Viandly does not require a descriptive subject, so a stable generic subject is sufficient.
8. From the LCD, select the saved Viandly address and choose grayscale, 300 dpi, and multi-page PDF.

The verified configuration produced an image-only PDF and delivered it to the Viandly Inbox in about 20 seconds after the scanner was warmed up. The scanner also appears to offer a searchable-PDF option that embeds OCR text; that option has not yet been verified with Viandly. Image-only PDFs can use AI vision or local OCR, while a good searchable PDF may offer the faster embedded-text path.

Send a test delivery

1. Scan one short recipe and send it to the private address.
2. In Viandly, open Inbox and select the scanner source filter, or use View in Inbox from Scanner Imports settings.
3. Wait while the delivery changes from receiving or processing to ready.
4. Select the delivery title to review its files and extraction choices.

Delivery is asynchronous. You can leave the page while Viandly downloads and inspects the attachments.

If Viandly recognizes your private scanner address but cannot accept the delivery, it emails the verified primary address on your account with the reason and a suggested next step. This can happen when the message has no attachment or too many attachments, the temporary queue is full, or scanner access is no longer enabled. Messages sent to unknown or disabled scanner addresses receive no account information.

If no delivery appears, confirm that the scanner sent to the complete address, attached a supported file rather than a link, and did not report an outbound-email failure.

Choose embedded text, AI vision, or local OCR

For a searchable PDF with useful embedded text, select Continue with embedded text. Viandly uses that text when its quality is adequate and avoids unnecessary image analysis.

When embedded text is weak or absent and your selected AI model has verified image support, Viandly recommends Analyze with AI. This starts background work that examines the ordered pages, locates recipe content within columns and surrounding page material, transcribes it, and creates a structured draft. You can leave the page and follow progress in Inbox.

The scanner review screen names the configured provider before any page images are sent. Usage is billed by the AI account you connected to Viandly. The original scanner delivery remains private and available if analysis fails.

Select Use local OCR instead when you do not want to send page images to an AI provider, when the selected model does not support images, or when you need to choose exact recognition regions. The pages enter the browser OCR workspace used by Photo OCR, where you can rotate pages, set their order, crop recognition regions, and review the resulting text.

Embedded text and local OCR open the editable source-review step before draft creation. AI vision creates a draft directly and retains its normalized transcription as the source evidence. In every case, review quantities, units, temperatures, times, attribution, and instruction order before saving the recipe.

If AI vision fails, open the delivery again to retry or select local OCR. Viandly does not discard the source files merely because the provider failed.

For the complete processing flow, scan-quality guidance, privacy boundary, and recovery options, read Analyze scanner recipes with AI.

Process new scans automatically

Scanner Imports settings defaults to Review each delivery. Choose Automatically analyze with AI when you want each successfully received scan to proceed directly to background AI vision without opening the scanner delivery first.

Automatic analysis requires an active AI provider and a selected model whose image input has been verified under Account Settings - AI Provider. Each delivery sends its normalized page images to that provider and uses the AI account you connected, including that provider's normal usage charges.

This setting affects future deliveries. Work already queued continues when you change it. If scanner access, provider configuration, verified image support, or available import capacity changes before automatic analysis can start, Viandly keeps the scan in Inbox as Ready to review. You can then fix the provider setting, select Analyze with AI, use embedded text, or run local OCR.

Limits and retention

The Scanner Imports settings page shows the current limits for pending items, temporary storage, attachment size, and retention. Current defaults allow up to 20 attachments in one message, with a 30 MiB maximum per attachment, 100 pending deliveries, 250 MiB of temporary account storage, and 14 days of retention.

Scanner attachments are temporary intake evidence. Viandly keeps them available beside Source Review and Draft Review so you can compare interpreted quantities, units, and instructions with the original page. Viandly schedules them for removal after you save the recipe, discard the source or draft, discard the delivery, or when retention expires. Retained pages count toward the temporary storage limit. The reviewed source text and any recipe draft created from it follow the normal import lifecycle.

Rotate or disable the address

Select Rotate address when the destination may have been disclosed. The old address stops accepting deliveries immediately, and you must update the scanner with the replacement.

Select Disable when you no longer want scanner delivery. This blocks new messages without preventing you from reviewing items that were already accepted. You can create another address later if scanner access remains available.