LegoFinder accepts the most common phone and camera image formats. Here's what works and what doesn't.
Supported formats
- JPG / JPEG — the default format on most phones; works perfectly.
- PNG — works perfectly. Larger file size than JPG for photos but no quality difference for the AI.
- WEBP — works perfectly. Newer format used by some Android phones.
- HEIC / HEIF — works. Default iPhone photo format. Converted automatically before identification.
Formats that don't work
- RAW (CR2, NEF, DNG, etc.) — DSLR raw formats aren't supported. Convert to JPG or PNG first.
- BMP, TIFF — older lossless formats; also need conversion.
- GIF — animations are not analyzed. Single-frame still photos work in any of the supported formats above.
- PDF — not a photo format. If you have a scan of LEGO content as PDF, screenshot the relevant page first.
File size
There's no strict size limit, but the site automatically compresses photos before upload to keep things fast. Practical guidelines:
- Under 5 MB: uploads instantly on most connections, no concern.
- 5–15 MB: normal modern phone photos; works fine, takes a second longer to upload.
- 15+ MB: typical of high-end phone cameras at full resolution; may be slow on cellular. Consider sharing as "medium" or "small" size from your phone's Photos app.
If your photo is rejected
- Check the format extension matches the actual file type (renaming `.heic` to `.jpg` doesn't change the format).
- Try opening the photo in your phone's Photos or Photos app, then re-saving — this often re-encodes to a clean JPG.
- If still rejected, take a fresh photo. Files corrupted during transfer (email, messaging apps that re-compress) sometimes won't decode cleanly.