Identify a pill from a photo

How to identify a pill from a photo

1. Put the pill on a plain background that contrasts with it, such as a dark cloth for a white pill.
2. Use bright, even light. Avoid the flash: it hides the letters pressed into the pill.
3. Hold your phone straight above the pill so it fills most of the picture, then take or choose the photo in the box above.
4. Check the color and shape we picked, and change them if they look wrong.
5. Tap Try to read the imprint, then compare every letter and number with your pill and fix any mistakes.
6. Compare the matches with your pill: the photo, size, score line and both sides.

Why the imprint matters more than the photo

Hundreds of medicines are small, white and round, so a photo alone cannot tell them apart. The imprint can. In the US, prescription and over-the-counter tablets and capsules are required, with few exceptions, to carry an imprint code that, together with color, shape and size, identifies the drug, its strength and its maker.

Letters pressed into a pill are hard for cameras to read, so always check the imprint yourself before trusting a match.

Tips for reading a hard-to-see imprint

• Light the pill from the side, for example with a lamp held low, so the pressed letters cast shadows.
• Use your phone camera’s zoom or magnifier as a magnifying glass.
• Look at both sides. Many pills have a code on one side and a number or a score line on the other.
• Type the letters and numbers you can read. A partial imprint still narrows the list.
• Do not scratch, wet or break the pill to read it.

Common questions