Lotus ScanHow to Scan Foil Magic Cards
A step-by-step guide to help you scan foil magic cards quickly and accurately.
Foil Magic cards are notoriously tricky to scan because their reflective surfaces bounce light directly into your camera, washing out the artwork and text. Many card scanner apps fail completely on foils, returning wrong matches or no match at all. The good news is that with the right technique and the right app, you can scan foils just as reliably as regular cards. Here's how to get clean, accurate foil scans every time.
Step-by-Step Guide
Use diffused or indirect lighting
The key to scanning foils is eliminating direct light reflections. Instead of scanning under a bright overhead light, angle the card so it catches light indirectly. A room with ambient lighting from multiple sources works better than a single desk lamp.
Tip: If you only have one light source, position the card at a 30-45 degree angle to the light rather than directly underneath it.
Choose a scanner that handles foils
Not all scanning apps are equal when it comes to foils. Lotus Scan is specifically designed to handle reflective surfaces without requiring a white background or special setup. Test your app on a known foil to see if it can identify it before committing to a long session.
Reduce the scanning distance
Hold the foil card slightly closer to the camera than you would for a normal card - about 4-6 inches away. Getting closer lets the camera capture more detail from the card's text and border, which helps the recognition algorithm compensate for areas where foil reflection obscures the art.
Angle the card to minimize hotspots
Tilt the card gently until you can see the artwork clearly in the viewfinder without a bright white glare spot. You're looking for the angle where the foil pattern is visible but not blowing out the camera. A slight tilt of 10-15 degrees is usually enough.
Tip: Watch the live preview on your screen - when you can read the card name clearly in the preview, that's your scanning angle.
Try scanning the card from the bottom half
If full-card scans keep failing, try positioning the camera to focus on the lower portion of the card where the text box sits. The text box is typically less reflective than the artwork area, and many scanning algorithms weight card text heavily for identification.
Make It Easier with Lotus Scan
Lotus Scan for iPhone simplifies this entire process with AI-powered card recognition, real-time price tracking, and intuitive collection management. Just point your camera and scan.
Pro Tips
- Scanning foils in a room with overhead fluorescent or LED panel lighting tends to work better than natural sunlight, which is more directional.
- If a foil is in a toploader, remove it before scanning - the extra layer of plastic doubles the reflection problem.
- Retro-frame and borderless foils are the hardest to scan. If all else fails, manually search for the card by name.
- Mark foil cards as foil in your scanner app immediately after scanning so the price reflects the foil premium.
- Etched foils are generally easier to scan than traditional foils because their surface is less mirror-like.