I have scanned over 250 books from my personal library.
Eyesight problems are my main reason for doing this. I can create an eBook with a larger font size which makes for easier reading on my eBookwise than from the original paper book.
I use an Optibook 3600 or a Canon Lide 60 to scan two pages at a time into Abbyy Fine Reader. After editing with Abbyy for spelling and scanning errors I then send the pages to Word. It is in Word that I arrange for a larger font size and other special formatting for chapter headings etc and removal of page numbers. I save the file as an .rtf file and then convert this to the .imp format required by the eBookwise.
I never save in .txt format because all formatting such as bold, italics etc are lost. Italics in particular are necessary to follow the storyline in some novels because they often represent thought or telepathy etc. Project Gutenberg overcomes this by using all upper case letters for emphasis but I find this distracting.
So, time consuming — yes — but I can usually manage to produce a finished ebook in less than a day and I also find the work very therapeutic and rewarding. This process means that when browsing in my local bookstore I don't have to put most of what interests me back on the shelf because I can't read the text.
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