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How to Print Recipe Cards

Print your recipes on 4×6 index cards for a recipe box, or on Letter or A4 for a binder, from your iPhone, with every card shown on screen before it prints.

  • How-to
  • Recipe Cat
Made for this: Recipe Cat

A recipe box works because a card is small, sturdy and easy to prop up by the stove. Handwriting every card takes time, though, and a phone screen goes dark when your hands are covered in flour. This guide covers what makes a recipe card easy to cook from, then how to print your recipes on 4×6 cards, or on Letter or A4 pages, with Recipe Cat, our recipe box for iPhone.

What makes a good recipe card

  • The name and where it's from. "Grandma's lemon cake" tells you more than "Lemon cake".
  • How many it serves and how long it takes. That's what you check before you start.
  • Ingredients you can scan at a glance. One per line, with the amount first.
  • Short, numbered steps. One action per step, so you can find your place again.
  • A note or two. A swap that worked, or the oven that runs hot.

A 4×6 card holds a short recipe. A long one needs more than one card, or a full page.

Type the recipe in

If Recipe Cat opens on What are you making?, tap Recipes first. Then tap Add recipe (the + button), then Type a recipe. In an empty box, tap Add your first recipe.

  1. Type the Recipe name.
  2. Fill in From (like Grandma or a cookbook), Serves and Time, if you want them on the card. They print on one line as you typed them, with "from" before the From part and a small icon before Serves and Time.
  3. Under Ingredients, put one per line. Pasting a list works too: bullets and numbers are tidied away.
  4. Under Method, put one step per line. The card numbers the steps for you.
  5. Add Notes if you have any, then tap Add.

The card prints your words exactly as saved. Amounts aren't converted or scaled, so write them the way you'd want to read them.

  1. Open the recipe and tap Print or share (the printer button at the top).
  2. Pick 4×6 card at the top. You see every card before you print.
  3. Tap Print, then choose your printer in the print panel.

The card is landscape, like the cards in a recipe box. The name sits at the top with the From, Serves and Time line under it. Ingredients run two to a row, and the steps are numbered. The dish photo stays off the card, which is kept for the words.

Text is never shrunk to fit. A long recipe goes on over more cards. Each one after the first repeats the name and says "continued". Every card but the last says which card comes next, like "Continued on card 2", and the last says, for example, "Card 2 of 2". Each card has a small "Recipe Cat" line at the foot.

The paper you pick is remembered for the next recipe you print.

Getting index cards through a home printer

Recipe Cat makes each card as a 4×6 page. Whether it comes out well on a real card depends on your printer, so check yours before a big batch:

  • Look in your printer's manual to see if it takes 4×6 paper, and how thick a card.
  • If the print options let you pick a paper size, pick 4×6.
  • Print one card on plain paper cut to size first, to see which way up it comes out.

If your printer won't take cards, try 4×6 photo paper if it takes that, or use Letter or A4 instead.

Pick Letter or A4 instead of 4×6 card. The print is larger, and the dish photo prints on the first page if the recipe has one. A long recipe goes on over more pages, the same way as on cards. Pages fit in a binder or a plastic sleeve, which wipes clean.

Share a recipe card

On the same screen, tap Share to send the recipe as a PDF, named after the recipe. The share sheet shows what your iPhone offers, like Messages, Mail or Save to Files. It's the same file that prints, every card or page of it, so the person you send it to can print it too.

What it costs

Printing and sharing any recipe on a 4×6 card, Letter or A4 is free, with as many recipes as you like, a photo of each dish, chapters and search. There's no account and no ads.

Recipe Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase. On the recipe side it adds Family cookbook (every recipe in one PDF, with a cover and contents), Scan a handwritten card and Paste a whole recipe. More on the Recipe Cat page. If you're putting a whole collection together, see how to make a family cookbook.

Quick answers

Can I print a recipe on a 3×5 card?
No. The card size is 4×6. For other sizes, use Letter or A4.

Does the dish photo print on the card?
No. It prints on Letter and A4 only.

Can I print several recipes at once?
Each recipe prints on its own. With Pro, the family cookbook puts every recipe in one PDF on Letter or A4.

Is printing free?
Yes, on all three paper sizes.

Try Recipe Cat

Try Recipe Cat: free, no ads, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/recipe-cat