Book Catalog: Shelf Scanner

Point your camera at a bookshelf. Book Catalog reads the spines and adds up to 40 books in one pass.

Every other book app makes you scan barcodes one at a time. That is why people who own 400 books never finish cataloguing them. Book Catalog takes a photo of the whole shelf, recognises the spines on your device, and hands you a review list where you confirm the matches before anything is saved.

A 500 book library is about 13 shelf photos. One afternoon.


SCAN A WHOLE SHELF

Photograph one shelf and get a list of what is on it, with a cover, title and author for each spine. Every match shows a confidence, and anything the camera was unsure about is flagged for you to check rather than guessed at. You approve the list, then the books are added. Recognition runs entirely on your device and the photo never leaves your phone.

Prefer one at a time? Scan an ISBN barcode, search by title or author, or type a book in by hand. All of it is free and unlimited.


BUILT FOR PEOPLE WHO OWN THE BOOKS

Most reading apps stop at a star rating. Book Catalog tracks the copy on your shelf:

First edition and printing number
Dust jacket present
Condition, graded Fine through Poor
Signed copies
Provenance notes
Purchase price and date
Estimated value, and a running total for the whole collection

Print an insurance inventory as a PDF with cover thumbnails, ISBNs, conditions and valuations, suitable for a homeowner's policy rider. Values are your own estimates and the document says so plainly.


NEVER BUY THE SAME BOOK TWICE

Book Catalog warns you at the moment you add a book you already own, and tells you which copy it collides with. It knows the difference between a second copy of the same edition, which is usually a mistake, and a different edition of the same work, which for a collector is often the point. There is a duplicates report for the whole library too.


BRING YOUR LIBRARY WITH YOU

Import a Goodreads or StoryGraph export, or any CSV, and keep your ratings, shelves and read dates. Import is free and unlimited, because a catalogue you cannot move into is no use to anyone.

Export back out to CSV whenever you like. Your library is yours.


TRACK THE READING TOO

Shelves for read, reading, want to read and your wishlist, plus any custom shelves you want
Reading progress by page or percent, with a session log
An annual reading goal that shows whether you are on pace and by how much
Streaks, pages per day, genre breakdown, and a year in books
Saved quotes with page references
A lending tracker for the books you have lent out and the ones you have borrowed

Everything is stored on your device. Sign in to iCloud and it syncs privately to your other devices. There is no account, no sign up, and no server of ours holding your library.


ACCESSIBLE BY DESIGN

Full Dynamic Type support up to the largest accessibility sizes, VoiceOver labels on every book and every scan result, and status shown with a symbol and a label rather than colour alone. The camera is opt