Quote:
Originally Posted by SameOldStory
You guys are making me feel like a small child about to get his first tricycle!
One of the first books that got me interested in history was "The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream" by G C Edmondson. I still have the original 1965 book. I also have two "updated" versions of the same book.
The thought of cutting it up was unthinkable, but I did want an ebook version. So I photographed each page (preserving the book intact) and converted them. I've just finished doing an eyeball scan to clean it up. It's probably 85% clean at this point. I'm now reading it to detect errors. All in all, a pain in the butt. I don't think that I could do that again.
Now that I found the REAL pros I feel so pathetic. My best wishes and a great big round of applause go out to you guys.
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I don't blame you for not wanting to cut up an original printing of a book that is dear to you. I have a handful in the same category. I will admit the first few dozen books I did cut up were ones I could easily replace if I messed up (which I did with a couple during the learning curve).
The way you scanned your book is perfectly acceptable and does spare the book. Just keep in mind that, depending on where you live, there could be legal issues regarding book copying. In the USA, copyright laws allow one to make a copy for archival purposes. You have to retain ownership of both copies, however. If you decide to sell or give away the original, you would have to either destroy the copy or give the copy to whoever receives the original; you cannot keep a copy for yourself. Media change (replacing an original with a copy in a different medium and destroying the original) is also legal. This option would also allow you to legally have a second copy in the new medium. In the UK, no copying of any kind is allowed. I can't say for elsewhere. Keep in mind as long as you aren't distributing any copies and are doing it for your own use, you will probably not run afoul of the law. It would be up to you if you would want to violate the law or not if it is illegal where you live.
If ever decide to do a large number of them, you might check with Iain. He has developed software that may make the job much easier. There are other programs available that will straighten out the curvature of photographed pages prior to OCR.
Btw, I do not consider myself to be a pro. I consider myself to be an expert (ex is a has been and spurt is a drip under pressure). When I embarked on my current project, I didn't know squat.