Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Formats > Workshop

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 01-22-2010, 12:21 AM   #1
Skydog
Wizard
Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Skydog's Avatar
 
Posts: 2,243
Karma: 7400001
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Circling Earth @ Mach .83
Device: Elipsa 2E, Sage, Forma, Libra 2, Clara 2E, Kindle Oasis3, Voyage
Question 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...
Skydog is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2010, 12:36 AM   #2
Mr. Dalliard
Zealot
Mr. Dalliard began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 143
Karma: 35
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Osaka, Japan
Device: Kindle 3
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.
Mr. Dalliard is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 01-22-2010, 02:09 AM   #3
Skydog
Wizard
Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Skydog's Avatar
 
Posts: 2,243
Karma: 7400001
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Circling Earth @ Mach .83
Device: Elipsa 2E, Sage, Forma, Libra 2, Clara 2E, Kindle Oasis3, Voyage
Thank you for your reply - very helpful!
Skydog is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2010, 05:39 AM   #4
AFK_Matrix
Sci Fi Addict :)
AFK_Matrix doesn't litterAFK_Matrix doesn't litter
 
AFK_Matrix's Avatar
 
Posts: 108
Karma: 112
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Crawley, UK
Device: Kindle 3G+WiFi
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.
AFK_Matrix is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-22-2010, 10:28 AM   #5
ascherjim
Addict
ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.
 
Posts: 260
Karma: 274
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Gig Harbor, Washington
Device: BeBook One, PocketBook 360, Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Aura One
Quote:
Originally Posted by AFK_Matrix View Post
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.
As you can perhaps read in a number of my postings in other related threads in this forum, I use and am very pleased with the OpticBook3600. It comes with ABBYY Finereader Sprint version 5 which I have found quite simple and effective to use. I recently upgraded to the Finereader Pro 10, not because I was dissatisfied with the Sprint 5, but because over the holiday season ABBYY offered a tremendously attractive offer of the Pro 10 upgrade at half-price -- at $89 -- and it does have a few additional features that I find useful. But you can download for free and try the Pro 10 (with limitations) on a trial basis.
ascherjim is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 01-23-2010, 02:23 PM   #6
AFK_Matrix
Sci Fi Addict :)
AFK_Matrix doesn't litterAFK_Matrix doesn't litter
 
AFK_Matrix's Avatar
 
Posts: 108
Karma: 112
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Crawley, UK
Device: Kindle 3G+WiFi
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??
AFK_Matrix is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2010, 02:39 PM   #7
ascherjim
Addict
ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.
 
Posts: 260
Karma: 274
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Gig Harbor, Washington
Device: BeBook One, PocketBook 360, Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Aura One
Quote:
Originally Posted by AFK_Matrix View Post
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??
Even though the prime feature of the OpticBook is the ability to lay the book at right angles and scan individual pages without harming (overly bending) the binding, you can nevertheless use the scanner as an ordinary flatbed scanner. You can thus lay the book flat and scan two (facing) pages at a time. The FineReader software separates those two scanned pages into separate (individual) pages, as if you had scanned only one page at a time. The page orientation (upside down or not) is not a concern, as the software renders the pages all with the same orientation. Hope this is helpful.
ascherjim is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2010, 02:42 PM   #8
Skydog
Wizard
Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Skydog's Avatar
 
Posts: 2,243
Karma: 7400001
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Circling Earth @ Mach .83
Device: Elipsa 2E, Sage, Forma, Libra 2, Clara 2E, Kindle Oasis3, Voyage
Quote:
Originally Posted by AFK_Matrix View Post
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??
I was wondering about this too. And, yes, it is a one-page-at-a-time operation.
Skydog is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2010, 02:44 PM   #9
Skydog
Wizard
Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Skydog ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Skydog's Avatar
 
Posts: 2,243
Karma: 7400001
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Circling Earth @ Mach .83
Device: Elipsa 2E, Sage, Forma, Libra 2, Clara 2E, Kindle Oasis3, Voyage
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascherjim View Post
As you can perhaps read in a number of my postings in other related threads in this forum, I use and am very pleased with the OpticBook3600. It comes with ABBYY Finereader Sprint version 5 which I have found quite simple and effective to use. I recently upgraded to the Finereader Pro 10, not because I was dissatisfied with the Sprint 5, but because over the holiday season ABBYY offered a tremendously attractive offer of the Pro 10 upgrade at half-price -- at $89 -- and it does have a few additional features that I find useful. But you can download for free and try the Pro 10 (with limitations) on a trial basis.
Does the Finereader Sprint version 5 allow scanning to HTML?
Skydog is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2010, 03:11 PM   #10
ascherjim
Addict
ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.
 
Posts: 260
Karma: 274
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Gig Harbor, Washington
Device: BeBook One, PocketBook 360, Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Aura One
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skydog View Post
Does the Finereader Sprint version 5 allow scanning to HTML?
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.
ascherjim is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2010, 06:00 PM   #11
pholy
Booklegger
pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
pholy's Avatar
 
Posts: 1,801
Karma: 7999816
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Device: BeBook(1 & 2010), PEZ, PRS-505, Kobo BT, PRS-T1, Playbook, Kobo Touch
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.
pholy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2010, 06:03 PM   #12
JSWolf
Resident Curmudgeon
JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
JSWolf's Avatar
 
Posts: 73,668
Karma: 127838212
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Dalliard View Post
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.
Plustek has a really bad website. Using flash for your menus is bad form.
JSWolf is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2010, 06:04 PM   #13
JSWolf
Resident Curmudgeon
JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JSWolf ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
JSWolf's Avatar
 
Posts: 73,668
Karma: 127838212
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
Quote:
Originally Posted by pholy View Post
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.
But can Abby Finereader do direct HTML output?
JSWolf is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2010, 06:12 PM   #14
pholy
Booklegger
pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pholy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
pholy's Avatar
 
Posts: 1,801
Karma: 7999816
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Device: BeBook(1 & 2010), PEZ, PRS-505, Kobo BT, PRS-T1, Playbook, Kobo Touch
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf View Post
But can Abby Finereader do direct HTML output?
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
pholy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-23-2010, 06:56 PM   #15
ascherjim
Addict
ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.ascherjim has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.
 
Posts: 260
Karma: 274
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Gig Harbor, Washington
Device: BeBook One, PocketBook 360, Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Aura One
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf View Post
But can Abby Finereader do direct HTML output?
I've already answered this above. Our postings might have crossed.
ascherjim is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
DIY Scanner Eratosthenes News 14 04-16-2010 04:21 PM
Welcher Scanner? Jacques_N Lounge 15 04-01-2010 05:34 PM
What scanner do you use, recommendations Moejoe Lounge 8 07-11-2009 02:38 AM
Using handheld scanner Idoine Workshop 13 06-14-2009 06:42 PM
scanner problem scanner Workshop 6 09-29-2008 08:37 AM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:03 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.