Small scanned books

[Paul Moews]

I have ordered an Iiad and am anxious to use it on books that I have recently scanned to pdf's. At the risk of being disappointed before I even get the Iliad perhaps others will try to display scanned books that might be readable and post comments here.

What excited me about the display is its size - 13 x 15 cm. Many out of copyright books of the late 19th and early 20th century, meant to be portable, were about 10 x 15 cm (ca 4 x 6 inches) and had fonts of a reasonable size. From what I've read these small books should display well.

Over the last few months I've scanned several hundred books and find that a black and white book - no grayscale required - can be converted to a pdf in about an hour - see below.

Some of these books can be found at http://djm.cc/dmoews.html (scroll to bottom of page) Two that might be readable on the Iliad are a book of charades by Bellamy –

http://djm.cc/library/A_Third_Centur...amy_edited.pdf
- page size 9.1 x 14.1 cm

and a temperance tract by Bruce Edwards –

http://djm.cc/library/Rachel_Nobles_...rds_edited.pdf
- page size 4 x 6 inches.

I was surprised at how fast a book can be scanned - of course it is necessary to unbind the book.

A. tear the book block from the binding
B. clear the adhesive off the back with a hobby knife and separate into signatures
C. Use an ordinary paper cutter to cut the folds off the signatures
D. Scan into a pdf - I use a Fujitsu Scan Snap - a neat little scanner that comes with Adobe Acrobat 7 and automatically deskews the pages.

[rmeister0]

I've done this with 60's-70's vintage PDFs that had cheap glue binding that is now dried up and cracking, and with 40's-50's vintage pulp magazines that are slowly falling apart due to poor storage.

How well the Iliad handles these image-based PDFs is of great interest to me.

[Paul Moews]

I received my Iliad and am now able to answer my own question.

The display size is about 4.8 x 6.8 inches but the bottom 0.9 inch is
used by the pdf display program leaving the useful display size approximately
4.8 x 5.9 inches. Scanned book pages smaller than 4.8 x 5.9 inches look
very good - gray scale images are handled well - color is converted to
gray scale - all very easy to read - pages are scaled to fit either the width
or the height of the display - nicely visible outdoors in bright sunshine.

As an example I scanned in Quiller Couch's Oxford Book of English Verse -
the 1918 edition which is out of copyright in the USA. It's 1095 pages long -
1084 numbered pages plus 11 pages of introduction, etc. The pages are
about 4 x 6.5 inches - scanned to pages of 4.04 x 6.39 inches at 600 dpi
produced a 35 MB file - The pages had quite a bit of white space at the
bottom and some at the top so I changes the margins to produce pages
4.04 x 5.60 inches. I also made a smaller version with adobe acrobat, which
is I believe done by reducing the resolution to 300 dpi, that gave a 19 MB
file. On the Iliad the pages are slightly larger than the original and very
readable, both the 600 dpi and 300 dpi version. One drawback - loading
from a USB stick takes 35 seconds for the smaller file and 50 seconds for
the larger file and page turns of 7 to 8 seconds.

At the moment my Iliad refuses to charge - only works when it is plugged in -

[scotty1024]

Have you tried OCRing the books, might speed up the page turn rate?

[Paul Moews]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Have you tried OCRing the books, might speed up the page turn rate?

OCRing is difficult for the Oxford Book of English Verse with it's odd spellings
and many footnotes with small type. I also want to preserve the look of
old books - typefaces, etc.

I ran the 19 MB version of the Book of English Verse through Acrobat's
distiller to produce a PDF 1.4 version which is 17 MB. The page turn
time is improved to 4 or 5 seconds - slow but acceptable - actually
I'm pleased with the way the book looks.

Still can't get the battery charged on my Iliad - the charge led goes on
for a second or so when the power adapter is plugged in but then goes
off.

[DuckDodgers]

Originally Posted by Paul Moews

Still can't get the battery charged on my Iliad - the charge led goes on
for a second or so when the power adapter is plugged in but then goes
off.

That seems to be problem with a small number of Iliads recently, mine had the same problem although the light failed to come at all and would only work with the travel hub connected. As you can guess its been recently returned.

[scotty1024]

Originally Posted by Paul Moews

I also want to preserve the look of
old books - typefaces, etc.

Sorry, hadn't taken that into account.

What are your thoughts on defects such as the big whorl on page 27 of Second_Algebra_Hawkes_Luby_Touton_edited? Preserve or eventually remove it? Tricky to remove since it crosses several glyphs.

[Paul Moews]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Sorry, hadn't taken that into account.

What are your thoughts on defects such as the big whorl on page 27 of Second_Algebra_Hawkes_Luby_Touton_edited? Preserve or eventually remove it? Tricky to remove since it crosses several glyphs.

Page 27 from Second Algebra is packed away among thousands
of pages of books stored without an indexing system. The swirl looks like
a pencil scribble not a tear as it does not go through to page 28. I bought
a number of math books at a half price sale - many had pencil marks which
I erased before scanning them, probably a missed one.

Still no charging light on my Iliad - one last try and I'll have to wait while it's
repaired.

[Paul Moews]

Even though my Iliad seems to have no battery I was able to upgrade
to ver 2.6 this morning - The page turn problem for a fairly large scanned
pdf file is no more - pages turn in about a second.

I have sent e-mail to irex as the first step in getting my iliad repaired but
as yet no reply - The business phone in the us takes messages, no human,
but I'm not sure that is the way to go.

Do I have to call Belgium from the US?

[Paul Moews]

I'm going to summarize what I've learned so far about viewing
scanned books on the Iliad - Briefly some manipulation makes scanned
pdf's easier to read. I'm hoping to make some books available soon.

The viewing area is large enough to show small books at their actual
size. As books can have a good deal of white space it is often possible
to change the margins so that books too large for the Iliad can still
be shown at their true size. I've done this for 20 or so books so
far by using adobe acrobat and adobe photoworkshop. I prefer photoworkshop
for this as it is more versatile than acrobat and easier to fix up the
odd page of a different size. I convert the pdf to tif pages with acrobat;
use a batch action with photoworkshop to adjust the margins (canvas size); and
then reconvert the pages back to pdf with adobe acrobat. Even though the
resulting file is a pdf ver 1.4 there seem to be a few glitches on the
Iliad - an occasional page which does not load completely or shows the wrong
size. A pass through Adobe distiller via a ps file seems to help - perhaps some
one who knows more about pdf's might comment. Of course it might be due to
my Iliad's lack of a working battery - it does turn off unexpectedly now and then.

I see that Sony's book reader is supposed to display pages at right angles to
give a wider viewing area - holding down the "size button" for 5 seconds rotates
the page to the wider view showing the top half - see the Sony answers on the
Sony forum. I assume the Iliad will eventually be able to do something similar.

Using a variation of removing white space described above I've used the
90 degree trick to give a wider viewing area for the Iliad. Make two copies
of the tif files and pass each through photoworkshop, one to produce the
top half pages and one to give bottom half pages. Use a global rename to append
an a to the bottom half page file name so that when contained in a single directory
the pages will interleave. Then assemble with acrobat and rotate all pages
90 degrees clockwise. It's best to have a 0.1 to 0.15 inch overlap between the
top and bottom half - more is distracting - less can cut through a line of
type.

That's it for now - a nice display and I hope to be able to carry it around
soon - called the 408 number and have received e-mail - Comments?

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Paul Moews

Comments?

Other than "you've been busy" and "thanks" -- no.

[Paul Moews]

Example Scanned Books Tweaked for the Iliad



My Iliad was promptly repaired and now functions nicely – Thanks Irex!



I have been scanning old out of copyright books into PDF files. It pleases me to see discarded and inexpensive books, brown with age and foxing, turned into nice black and white images on a computer screen. Many of them display very well on the Iliad and if the page size fits the Iliad screen they are as easy to read as the original. The problem is the page size; the margins on many books need to be reduced so that the print block shows full size on the Iliad screen.



Most of these books are available as PDF files scanned by Google. I’ve looked at a number of Google’s PDF offerings and to my surprise found many of them to be very poorly done. Project Gutenberg has also converted a number of the books to text but often without illustrations. The Iliad’s 16 gray levels are capable of displaying gray scale images quite well and many of the example books have black and white illustrations.



A word about resolution – these books were scanned at 600 bpi and then had their file sizes reduced in Adobe Acrobat by downsizing to 300 bpi. The Adobe Acrobat downsize algorithm removes bits from the edges of the letters – quite visible at higher magnification. The books look better on the Iliad at 600 bpi but at a considerable cost in storage space. One book – Little Masterpieces, Volume I – is presented in both 300 and 600 bpi.



Here are 40 books, two in two versions, which have had their margins tweaked for the Iliad. Of course they can be viewed on other devices. You will find the PDF files at http://djm.cc/dmoews.html - scroll to the bottom of the page. Many thanks to David Moews for hosting these files.





Seeing Europe with Famous Authors – Edited by Francis W. Halsey



Volume I Great Britain and Ireland Part One

Volume II Great Britain and Ireland Part Two

Volume III France and the Netherlands Part One

Volume IV France and the Netherlands Part Two

Volume V Germany Austria Switzerland Part One

Volume VI Germany Austria Switzerland Part Two

Volume VII Italy and Greece Part One

Volume VIII Italy and Greece Part Two

Volume IX Spain and Portugal

Volume X Russia Scandinavia and the Southeast



This series of 10 small books was copyright 1914 which coincided with the beginning of WWI – the major powers all declared war early in August of that year. The illustrations are of Europe at peace just before the start of war. They are small pocket-size books – 4 x 6 inches in size – and approximately 200 pages long. Each contained 16 pages of illustrations on coated paper, 8 pages on 4 sheets preceding page 1 and 8 more pages preceding page 96. A frontispiece and title page were also printed on coated paper. Nicely and economically done they were published by Funk & Wagnalls and printed in the United States. Halsey claimed that these were not guide books but could enlarge the knowledge of people familiar with Europe and serve as a substitute for those who had never visited. This series is already available as text from Project Gutenberg but the illustrations are lacking. They are also available from Google but extremely poorly done. These scanned copies included all the illustrations and I have separated and arranged them so as to show to their best advantage on the Iliad. Some are faded but the 16 gray levels available on the Iliad produce quite acceptable images.







Library of Little Masterpieces – Various Editors

Published by DoubleDay, Page and Company for The Review of Reviews Company, 1909



Little Masterpieces Volume 1 Thackeray Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 1 Thackeray Edited by Bliss Perry (600 bpi version)

Little Masterpieces Volume 2 Ruskin Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 3 Carlyle Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 4 Macaulay Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 5 Hawthorne Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 6 Irving Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 7 Poe Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 8 De Quincey Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 9 Lincoln Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 10 Lamb Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 11 Webster Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpieces Volume 12 Franklin Edited by Bliss Perry

Little Masterpiece Volume 37 Fiction Edited by Hamilton W. Mabie

Little Masterpiece Volume 38 Fiction Edited by Hamilton W. Mabie

Little Masterpiece Volume 39 Fiction Edited by Hamilton W. Mabie

Little Masterpiece Volume 40 Fiction Edited by Hamilton W. Mabie

Little Masterpiece Volume 41 Fiction Edited by Hamilton W. Mabie

Little Masterpiece Volume 42 Fiction Edited by Hamilton W. Mabie

Little Masterpiece Volume 43 Fiction Edited by Hamilton W. Mabie

Little Masterpiece Volume 44 Fiction Edited by Hamilton W. Mabie



This is a handsome 44 volume set for The Review of Reviews Company. They are about 4 x 6 inches with an embossed red binding, a tissue protected frontispiece, and a Title page embellished with red type. Volume 1 is available in both 300 bpi and 600 bpi versions.





Stories of the Universe – The Stars – George F. Chambers

Library of Valuable Knowledge – The Story of the Solar System – George F. Chambers

Library of Valuable Knowledge – The Story of Eclipses – George F. Chambers



George Chambers was an English barrister who was also an amateur astronomer. He wrote extensively about astronomy and these three little books were published both in England and the United States near the end of the 19th century. In “The Story of the Solar System” he describes the 8 known planets – a number which is again accepted as correct.





A Treatise on Astronomy – John F. W. Herschel

A Treatise on Astronomy – John F. W. Herschel - Rotated Version



This is the American version of Herschel’s Treatise on Astronomy published in 1836. The pages are slightly reduced in size on the Iliad and a rotated larger version which shows half a page at a time is also provided. Of historic interest though it is fun to read his account of the types of scientific instruments and the state of geographical measurements. One amusing paragraph describes what a person situated on the moon would see when looking at the earth – p. 234 or p. 468 of the rotated version.





The Oxford Book of English Verse – 1250 – 1900

Chosen and Edited by Arthur Quiller Couch – 1918



From a tattered India paper copy – The pages are shown slightly larger than full size on the Iliad.





Mince Pie – Christopher Morley

The Miscellany of a Japanese Priest - Tsure-Zure Gusa – Translated by William N Porter



Christopher Morley was a journalist and novelist perhaps best known for his novel “Kitty Foyle”. Mince Pie is a collection of sketches written early in his career. The copy scanned was a discard from the Long Beach public library, well worn, and rebound at least once. The Miscellany of a Japanese Priest is the subject of one of the sketches – see p. 102 of Mince Pie. Mince Pie is also available at Project Gutenberg but without the illustrations.





Real Soldier of Fortune – Richard Harding Davis



Richard Harding Davis was a correspondent during the second Boer War. This book contains a biography of the young Sir Winston Churchill. The text is available at Project Gutenberg but without the illustrations. The portrait of Winston Churchill is well rendered on the Illiad – see p. 109. The pages are approximately 5 by 7 inches but include a good deal of white space. A 4 by 5.9 inch portion includes all of the text and allows the pages to be shown full size on the Illiad.





The War on All Fronts

The War in Eastern Europe – John Silas Reed – pictures by Boardman Robinson



John Reed was a famous journalist. His account of the Bolshevik revolution is available at Project Gutenberg. Robinson was a Canadian born illustrator and cartoonist. This is an account of their trip through Serbia and Russia from April to October 1915. The pages are about 5 by 7 inches but eliminating some of the extensive white space allows them to be shown at almost full size on the Iliad. Also available from Google but poorly done.





The Pentecost of Calamity – Owen Wister



Owen Wister is best known for his novel the Virginian. This little book was published in 1915 and is a discussion of the origins of WWI. A bit difficult to read – I believe he blames the war on the Germans, specifically their fondness for order and discipline. I’ve omitted the many blank pages and some of the white space.





It seems to me better to read these books reproduced as they were published. Marks and additions by earlier owners are preserved and one better gets the sense that one is reading an old book. For example the copy of “Mince Pie” still includes the pocket for the library card and a due date slip – it seems to have been a popular book – see the two pages at the end of the book.



Comments?

[Paul Moews]

A few comments about scanned books and the software update.

About 1400 copies of the scanned books I cropped for the Iliad were
downloaded to about 100 IP addresses. See earlier post above.
Books are available at: http://djm.cc/dmoews.html - scroll
to bottom of page.

The zoom function in ver 2.7 makes cropping less necessary. It's
often possible to zoom in just enough to eliminate the white space
around the text - the zoom is maintained through page turns and can
serve as a kind of margin selection. Landscape in the new operating
system is not as useful as it might be. In the Sony reader landscape
shows the top half of the page and a page turn shows the bottom half.
In the Iliad panning is required for every page. Also in the Sony the
display space taken up by the operating system turns to landscape as
well making a wider display. In fact the Sony display in landscape is
wider than the Iliad display in portrait.

I find that books that I already scanned at 600 dpi display quite well
on the Iliad. The only problem is that the files are large.

For example I have scanned in a humorous History of the US
from the 19th century - (the Mayflower is shown covered with furniture)

Bill Nye's History of the United States, Bill Nye, illus. F. Opper.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1894. PDF (22M)

http://djm.cc/library/Bill_Nyes_Hist..._US_edited.pdf

The book was scanned to tif's - bit maps - at 600 dpi - and the files converted to
a pdf. It contains many illustrations and, as it was well preserved,
scanned well. The page size is about 5.2 by 8.1 inches but the text blocks
are only 3.6 x 5.9 inches. Using the new zoom command the text can be shown
at full size and the zoom maintained on paging. The figures can be
enlarged and as they were originally done at 600 dpi show well at larger
sizes.

I've use a hand lens to have a closer look at scanned text and it seems to me
that the algorithm used by the Iliad results in anti-aliasing for scanned text.
Scanned text at 600 bpi is often very well done by the Iliad.

I took a bit of text, an "and" from a page 3.5 x 5.0 inches scanned at 600 bpi
and photographed it as displayed on the Iliad and also on the Sony reader.
Both displays show the characters a bit larger than the original - Sony's display
in landscape is similar to the Iliad in portrait - I also converted the original
tif - a bitmap - of the "and" to a pdf for comparison and photographed the same
"and" slightly zoomed on the Iliad.

A millimeter scale was overlayed on the displays - the small divisions are
0.1 mm. The Sony display and the Iliad display are quite different. The Sony
display algorithm seems to have downsized to a bitmap - the pixels are either
on or off. The Iliad display, appears to me at least, to have downsized with
some anti-aliasing. The original "and" on the paper was about 4.4 mm wide, on
the Iliad picture, Iliad-small, and the Sony reader picture it is about 5 mm wide, and
on the zoomed Iliad picture - Iliad-large - it is about 6 mm wide.

Any comments ? Can anyone comment on the Iliad display algorithm ?

[ath]

...it seems to me
that the algorithm used by the Iliad results in anti-aliasing for scanned text.

Resampling, more probably -- the source pixels have to be transformed to a) the pixel raster, and to b) the pixel 'depth' (number of grey levels) of each pixel. I assume you did not resample the images or encode lossily -- that would introduce further possible variations to play with. (LATER: encoding is CCITTFaxEncoding, so it's non-lossy, and size is approx. 5 x 8 in, so probably no resampling, so that's OK.)

As the Sony and the iLiad have different screens, it's not easy to say if this is a hardware difference or a software difference: the screens need not display greyscales according to the same response curve (quite apart from differences between individual screens and individual pixels). The zoom is probably also a factor -- unless you ensure that both systems should produce an 'a' in exactly the same subpixel position, minor differences may be very visible. That there's different software involved is certain: The Sony Reader has an Adobe PDF reader, while the iLiad uses the xpdf reader, and they could easily use different resampling algorithms.

[Mambo]

Paul,

I like the way how you select books for scanning, and I really appreciate your efforts.
We need more!