01-22-2010, 12:21 AM | #1 |
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Scanner recommendation
Lately I have been contemplating the idea of scanning and converting some of my favorite old paper books but have no experience doing so. I prefer a dedicated scanner that will not require the destruction of my books.
As I am in the research/learn stage, are there any sites offering reviews of hardware & software that would be helpful for a novice in making a decision? Is the Opticbook 3600 still a viable option? Is something faster a better choice? Thank you in advance... |
01-22-2010, 12:36 AM | #2 |
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I recently purchased an Opticbook 4600 and have already scanned over 4000 A4 pages without any problems, and with satisfactory speed. Bundled software is a bit crap though.
Software-wise, ABBYY Finereader is an excellent choice. |
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01-22-2010, 02:09 AM | #3 |
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Thank you for your reply - very helpful!
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01-22-2010, 05:39 AM | #4 |
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I too am interested in putting my hundereds of books into ebook format. If I went for the Opticbook3600, would it come with the right software or would I have to purchase the software seperately?
Is a scanner and software all that I need or is there anything else to convert my books? Oh I too don't want to destroy my books to scan them. |
01-22-2010, 10:28 AM | #5 | |
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01-23-2010, 02:23 PM | #6 |
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Thanks for the info ascherjim. I was very interested in getting a Opticbook3600 as I can get one for £160 which isn't too bad. Just so I have this right would I have to scan every single page one at a time?? Also from the pictures would i have to turn the book upside down on the scanner so i can do both sides, would i then have to use the software to rotate page??
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01-23-2010, 02:39 PM | #7 | |
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01-23-2010, 02:42 PM | #8 |
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01-23-2010, 02:44 PM | #9 | |
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01-23-2010, 03:11 PM | #10 |
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This version of FineReader does not provide for a direct saving in the HTML format, as the Pro 10 does. However, as you have to edit (proof-read) whatever you scan anyway, the Sprint version does allow exporting whatever you've scanned to word processors, such as Word and Wordperfect. And those word proceessors do provide for conversion to HTML.
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01-23-2010, 06:00 PM | #11 |
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I have a 3600. Yesterday I scanned a 250 page book in about an hour, using the side scan and rotate book method. It took about an hour, so four pages per minute. I don't have Word or Word Perfect, so Abbyy Sprint 5 puts into rtf and opens WordPad for me. That conversion took about 2-4 minutes maybe - I didn't time it. I haven't found a lot of recognition errors, but removing the page breaks (because I don't try to crop out page numbers) and the hyphens can take a few more hours... Then I open it with Open Office and save to html. That's as far as I've gotten so far.
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01-23-2010, 06:03 PM | #12 | |
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01-23-2010, 06:04 PM | #13 | |
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01-23-2010, 06:12 PM | #14 |
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My Sprint version 5 doesn't. I haven't checked on the Express version 9 ($49) or the Pro version 10 ($400 - $500, I can't remember, but $200 for upgrade).
I'm not sure I would want it to, unless I had a really easy way of fixing the (very few) mis-recognitions and the (lots of) font size changes and hyphens and premature end of paragraphs... I'm still learning, though |
01-23-2010, 06:56 PM | #15 |
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