How to Scan Shooting Targets with Your Phone

The three rules of a good scan

1. The whole black in view. The black aiming mark must be completely in the photo and fill 20 to 100% of the image. Closer is better, as long as nothing is cut off.
2. Straight from above. Hold the phone parallel to the card, at most about 15° tilt. The ring lines need to be visible.
3. Backlight. Hold the target against a window, a lamp or a bright screen. Light shines through the holes so they stand out clearly, also in the black.

Use the light box

AimScan has a built-in light box. Open it on a second device, such as a tablet or an old phone (Settings, Tools, Light box), set the brightness to maximum and lay the target on the screen. Tap for full screen. Then scan with your main phone. This gives even, bright backlight anywhere.

What happens during a scan

When you take or choose a photo, AimScan:

1. Finds the black aiming mark and fits the ring lines.
2. Corrects perspective and lens tilt, so the target is perfectly round and to scale.
3. Locates every hole and measures its centre, splitting holes that touch or overlap.
4. Scores each shot with the rules of your folder.

All processing happens on your device. The photo is not uploaded.

Cards with several bulls

For multi-bull cards, AimScan detects each aiming mark and assigns shots to the nearest bull. Each bull is shown separately as "Bull 1", "Bull 2" and so on.

Choose from the gallery

Tap Choose from gallery to score a photo you took earlier, for example at the range when there was no time to scan.

Enter shots by hand

No photo? Tap Enter by hand (blank target). You get an empty target of the right discipline and place each shot with your finger. Useful for electronic scoring results or when you only have a score sheet.

When recognition fails

"The black aiming mark was not found"

Get the whole black in view and a bit closer. Avoid strong shadows across the card. Or tap Align: drag the circle onto the black aiming mark and drag the handle on the right to match its size. Then tap Detect shots.

"No shot holes were found"

Use backlight so the holes are bright. Holes in white paper without backlight are hard to see. You can always place the shots by hand.

A hole was missed or doubled

This happens with ragged holes or many shots in one hole. Correct it in the shot editor. Tap Retry to run recognition again on a new photo.

Photos and storage

AimScan keeps a reduced size copy of the photo with each target, so you can always look back. Tap Original photo on a saved target to view it.