Upload & transform

Turn any notes, PDF or lecture into study notes

Q: Can BrightStudy convert handwritten notes to text?

Yes. Choose **Digitise** and upload a photo, scan or PDF of your handwritten notes. BrightStudy reads the handwriting and rebuilds it as clean, editable text, including formulas and, if you turn on image extraction, diagrams. Clear, well-lit photos give the best results, and you can check the result against the original side by side.

Q: Can I turn a YouTube lecture into notes?

Yes. Choose **YouTube**, paste the link, and BrightStudy creates notes from the video’s transcript, with the same options as any other upload.

Q: Can I record a lecture and get notes from it?

Yes. Choose **Record audio** to record in your browser or upload a recording. It is transcribed first, then turned into notes. Always check your university’s rules and get permission before recording a lecture.

Upload what your course gives you, from lecture slides and PDFs to photos of handwritten notes, YouTube lectures and recordings. Then choose what BrightStudy does with it: a faithful digital copy, a summary or a fuller set of revision notes.

Join for free See how it works ↓

5 sourcesfiles, scans, YouTube, audio and Anki

4 optionsSummarise, Enhance, Digitise or Store

50 MBper document you upload

1 uploadnotes, flashcards, MCQs and an infographic

A laptop showing the BrightStudy upload panel beside handwritten study notes

Step one: bring it in

Bring in everything your course gives you

Slides, PDFs, Word documents, photos of the whiteboard, your own handwritten pages and lectures on video: BrightStudy takes all of them through one upload page, so your revision starts from one place.

Upload files

PDF, Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx), images (JPG, PNG) and plain text, up to 50 MB each.

Scan notes

Use your phone or laptop camera to capture handwritten or printed pages one after another. They are combined into a single document.

YouTube

Paste a video link and BrightStudy works from the video’s transcript.

Record audio

Record a lecture or voice note in the browser, or upload MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, WEBM, OGG or AAC. Speech is transcribed before notes are made.

Import Anki

Bring existing flashcard decks across, including their review history. See spaced repetition.

Step two

Choose what happens to it: four options

After you add a file, the upload window shows a preview and four choices. Each one produces something different, so pick the one that matches what you need from that document.

A student photographing a page of handwritten notes with a phone

Digitise

Turns a photo, scan or PDF into clean, structured, editable text that stays faithful to the original. Nothing is rewritten or left out.

A tall stack of lecture handouts next to one tidy summary sheet and a highlighter

Summarise

Condenses the material into study notes at the depth you choose: Snapshot, Focus or Deep Dive.

A student writing rough notes beside a laptop showing clean, structured notes

Enhance

Improves your notes instead of shortening them, from a light Polish to a full Transform, or a Custom mix of improvements.

A laptop showing a grid of folders beside a row of labelled ring binders

Store only

Keeps the original exactly as it is in your Vault, with no AI processing. Useful for timetables, forms and reference files.

Digitise

Handwritten notes, now editable text

Digitise is for when you want your own notes, exactly as you wrote them, in digital form. Snap a handwritten page, a printed handout or a scanned PDF and BrightStudy rebuilds it as a clean document.

A faithful copy
Headings, lists and paragraphs as you wrote them. Nothing is rewritten or left out.
Formulas and diagrams
Maths comes through as proper notation. Turn on Extract images and figures are placed in the text, or redrawn cleanly by AI.
Ready to study
Opens as an editable Study Doc in your chosen folder. Tick MCQs or Flashcards to practise from it straight away.

A photo of a handwritten chemistry page on moles and gas volume

The same chemistry notes digitised by BrightStudy as clean text with formatted formulas

Your handwritingDigitised

Drag to compare

Summarise

Long lectures, short, sharp notes

An AI note summariser that reads the whole document, keeps what matters and drops the rest. It works on a 40-slide lecture deck, a journal paper, a textbook chapter or a page of scribbled notes, and you choose how much detail you want.

Every summary includes

An overviewClear headingsKey terms in boldMust-remember callouts

Your lecture slide

Mitochondria generate ATP through aerobic respiration. They have a double membrane; the inner membrane folds into cristae, which increase the surface area available for the electron transport chain.

Choose a depth

SnapshotQuick recapFocusKey pointsDeep DiveIn depth

Snapshot

Mitochondria = the cell’s ATP factories. Double membrane; inner folds (cristae) boost surface area for energy production.

Focus

Mitochondria produce ATP via aerobic respiration.
They are wrapped in a double membrane.
The inner membrane folds into cristae.
Cristae increase surface area for the electron transport chain.

Deep Dive

Mitochondria are the site of aerobic respiration and produce most cellular ATP. The inner membrane is highly folded into cristae, which multiply the surface area available to the electron transport chain.
More cristae means more capacity for ATP synthesis, which is why energy-hungry cells such as muscle and neurones are packed with mitochondria.

Enhance

Rough notes in, revision notes out

Enhance is for notes that are yours but not yet good enough to revise from: shorthand from a fast lecture, half-finished bullet points, a sketchy diagram. Instead of shortening them, Enhance improves them, and can redraw your diagrams as clean, labelled figures.

Handwritten biology notes on vascular bundles in stems, roots and leaves with hand-drawn diagrams — Your notes

The enhanced Study Doc with a clean, labelled diagram of a leaf cross-section showing the vascular bundle — Enhanced

Your rough notemitochondria - powerhouse, makes ATP. dbl membrane, cristae = folds, more surface = more energy

Level 1

Polish

Tidies formatting and fixes typos. Keeps your wording.

Mitochondria — the powerhouse of the cell; they make ATP. Double membrane; cristae are folds of the inner membrane.

Level 2

Refine

Stronger revision material with fuller sentences.

Mitochondria produce ATP through aerobic respiration. The inner membrane folds into cristae — extra surface area that increases energy output.

Level 3

Transform

High-quality study notes with structure and exam tips.

Role: produce ATP. Structure: double membrane, folded cristae. Exam tip: link cristae density to energy demand in muscle cells.

See how it works ↓

Also generate

Flashcards, MCQs and an infographic from the same upload

Under Also generate, tick what else you want made from the document at the same time:

Flashcards: question-and-answer cards for active recall, ready to study with spaced repetition.
MCQs: exam-style multiple-choice questions with explanations. They get harder as you improve: see adaptive MCQs.
Infographic (Summarise and Enhance): a one-page visual cover for your notes. Premium graphics add an AI-illustrated hero image, with a limited number of uses per day.

Where it all goes

Choose Automatic storage and BrightStudy suggests a folder for the notes and a deck for the cards and questions. Choose Manual to pick them yourself. Switch on Save as default and the same setup is ready next time you upload.

The BrightStudy upload window with Summarise selected, Snapshot, Focus and Deep Dive note types, and options to also generate MCQs, flashcards and an infographic

Your choices in the upload window, next to a preview of the file.

How it works

From upload to revision in five steps

Most documents are ready in a couple of minutes, and you can cancel at any time.

1
Choose a source
Upload files, scan pages, paste a YouTube link, record audio or import Anki. Add several documents at once and set each one up separately.
2
Pick an option
Digitise, Summarise, Enhance or Store, and its level. Each has a “?” that shows a worked example first.
3
Add extras
Tick MCQs, flashcards or an infographic, and turn on image extraction if the document has diagrams.
4
Let BrightStudy work
A progress screen shows each part being made, one by one.
5
Open your Study Doc
Flashcards, MCQs and the original file are one click away. Edit anything and compare with the original side by side.

Store only

Keep the original, always

Whatever you choose, your original file is kept. In any Study Doc, the Original Doc button opens the source next to your notes, whether it is a photo, PDF, Word file, recording with transcript or YouTube video, so you can check a detail against what you were given. You can download the original at any time.

If a file does not need AI at all, choose Store only. It goes straight into a folder in your Vault as it is, up to 20 MB.

The BrightStudy upload window with Store Only selected, explaining that the original file is kept as it is with no AI processing

After you upload

What you can do with your new notes

Every upload becomes part of one study system: notes to edit, cards to review, questions to practise and a Vault to keep it all.

Edit like a document

Study Docs are fully editable: fonts, headings, tables, images, callouts and page layout, with your flashcards and MCQs one click away.

A BrightStudy Study Doc on plant transport systems with an outline, a key idea callout and the Study Set panel

Find it later

Every upload, Study Doc and original lives in your Vault, in folders you control.

The Vault →

The BrightStudy Vault with storage centres for documents, images, recordings and YouTube

Revise with flashcards

Cards come back just before you would forget them, scheduled with spaced repetition.

Spaced repetition →

A BrightStudy flashcard showing its answer with Incorrect, Almost and Correct buttons and their next review times

Practise with questions

Answer exam-style MCQs and earn fresh versions of each question as you master it.

Adaptive MCQs →

A BrightStudy MCQ practice session asking which vessel delivers oxygenated blood to each kidney

FAQ

Questions, answered

Questions about uploading and transforming notes. Everything students ask before their first upload.

Still have a question?

Try BrightStudy free and upload your first document, or email us at support@brightstudy.ai.

Join for free Compare plans

Can BrightStudy convert handwritten notes to text?

Yes. Choose Digitise and upload a photo, scan or PDF of your handwritten notes. BrightStudy reads the handwriting and rebuilds it as clean, editable text, including formulas and, if you turn on image extraction, diagrams. Clear, well-lit photos give the best results, and you can check the result against the original side by side.

What is the difference between Digitise, Summarise and Enhance?

Digitise makes a faithful digital copy and changes nothing. Summarise condenses the material into Snapshot, Focus or Deep Dive notes. Enhance keeps your content and improves it, from tidying typos (Polish) to full study notes (Transform).

What file types can I upload?

PDF, Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.ppt and .pptx), JPG and PNG images and plain text, up to 50 MB each. For audio and video you can upload MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, WEBM, OGG or AAC, or record in the browser. You can also paste a YouTube link or import Anki decks.

Can I turn a YouTube lecture into notes?

Yes. Choose YouTube, paste the link, and BrightStudy creates notes from the video’s transcript, with the same options as any other upload.

Can I record a lecture and get notes from it?

Yes. Choose Record audio to record in your browser or upload a recording. It is transcribed first, then turned into notes. Always check your university’s rules and get permission before recording a lecture.

Can I upload several documents at once?

Yes. Add several files to the upload window and set up each one separately, for example Digitise for your handwritten pages and Summarise for the lecture slides.

Can I edit the notes afterwards?

Yes. Every result opens as an editable Study Doc. You can also generate flashcards, MCQs or an infographic later from any document.

Is uploading free?

The Free plan includes a monthly AI allowance, so you can try Digitise, Summarise and Enhance. Paid plans give a larger allowance, and some options depend on your plan. Compare plans.

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