Quote:
Originally Posted by bitemeok
Lady Fitzgerald or anyone else who has the Fujitsu ScanSnap s1500--how does the documnet feeder on that scanner handle mass market paperback size pages? I'm shopping for a scanner now and want to be able to scan a number of old paperbacks quickly, if possible.
|
Surprisingly well, depending on how you "liberate" the pages from the book. I had some trouble with double feeds and misfeeds when running though pages from books that had the spines cut off with a saw. Dust was also a huge problem.
Since I quit sawing off the spines and started using a guillotine type paper cutter, the scanner does very well. There is less dust and double feeds have been almost eliminated. It takes about a minute to do 20 pages in color but it's faster with black & white. It is rated to hold 100 pages (50 sheets) but some of the really long books use really thin pages and I have loaded up to 150 pages at a time with problems.
I thoroughly clan the scanner with a brush designed for LCD TV screens, a small vacuum cleaner and a solvent moistened microfiber cloth after each book. That may sound excessive until you consider the volume of paper you run through with each book, roughly only what the average small office may run through in a day. I only takes about a minute to clean the machine. Also, every few books, I have to use a solvent dampened cloth to clean the ink from the print from the feed roller. This takes only a minute.
The books most likely to have double feeds are ones that have a very rough surface on the pages. Cleaning the feed roller will usually correct that. Double feeds and misfeeds are easy to fix when they do happen.
I first scan both sides of the front and back covers in color as individual files, either .jpg or .pdf, then scan the body of the book in B&W. Even very yellowed pages will come out white with crisp, black text that way. Then I use Adobe Acrobat Standard 9 to add the covers to the rest of the book and check to make sure I fed each batch of pages in correctly (human error happens). For a 500 page book, the whole process takes 15-20 minutes, including cleaning the machine and depending on how focused I am.
The number of jams will depend on how well you cut the pages apart. If you don't cut enough of the spine off, some of the pages will be stuck together with a thin line of glue which may separate easily when you pull them apart but will jam in the machine. The rough cut of a saw blade can cause pages to "key" together at the cut edge so a knife cut is much better. Since switching to the guillotine, I've pretty much eliminated jams.
For a more complete review of the Snapscan s1500, check out my review on Amazon under
Jeannie, Tempe (you may have to scroll through more than one page to find it; they like to juggle them around). If you are still interrested in the machine and can wait awhile, they usually go on sale toward the end of the year. If you do get it, I can help you with settings.