Quote:
Originally Posted by Maggie Leung
How readable are the books if you don't do anything but scan 'em? (I mean skip the editing and such.) I could probably pay a neighbor kid to scan 'em, but not edit, of course.
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Depends on the software and the setup.
If you can set the scan window to cut out the page headers and/or footers you should get something that is pretty good and readable out of the OCR Software.
I've used both Abby and Nuance Scansoft (mostly the latter) and what I do is scan to a MS Word dual column format (for two page at a time scans) and save as a "true view" word doc that retains the dual column layout. Then I open it in WordPad and resave as rtf. This seemlessly blends the layout into a single text stream. I save both files until I'm ready to proof.
Then I open it in MS Word, run a cleanup macro and begin proofing.
If you skip proofing you should have a file about as readable as a Typical Topaz or PDF file, usually better. The most common problem is with paragraph ending and that's something the macro can easily handle.
The reason I stick with the extra trouble of the flatbed is that, while I don't care about the smell of boooks, it goes against the grain to destroy a book under any condition.
I'll have to consider subcontracting the page flipping.
I have some young (tween) cousins who can probably use the pocket money.
Thanks for the hint.