MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - OpticBook 3600 Book Scanner Review

Bob Russell · 03-27-2007, 01:07 PM

Gameboy,

Thanks for the nice comment. Yes, part II is coming. I seem to be perpetually just on the verge! Might also make a comment or two about it in relation to the Canon all-in-one (which includes software-based duplex scanning and OCR) I got recently also.

But as far as the Sony Reader, I'd have to say that my solution is to OCR the book and then load it up as an RTF using the "famous" Word macro for formatting. Probably similar results to any other scanning solution.

The OpticBook is fantastic if you want to basically be able to scan any book easily, one page at a time. If you are willing to put in a lot of effort and experimentation, other solutions might get you results a little faster (scan two pages at a time, or pull apart a book and use an auto feed scanner, or flat scan two pages at a time and deal with the spine), but I don't think most people will want to deal with those problems. For most people, it's probably easier to take the extra time with the OpticBook and be able to do any book, and not have to worry about the details.

Just remember that while the OpticBook is great (and I do recommend it as long as people understand its market niche and the tradeoffs), you do have to invest quite a bit of time an energy to scan a large book. Unless you have the extra time, it's probably only something you'll do for books you REALLY want to have in e-book form, or that you need to convert for some reason.

03-27-2007, 01:07 PM	#30
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Gameboy, Thanks for the nice comment. Yes, part II is coming. I seem to be perpetually just on the verge! Might also make a comment or two about it in relation to the Canon all-in-one (which includes software-based duplex scanning and OCR) I got recently also. But as far as the Sony Reader, I'd have to say that my solution is to OCR the book and then load it up as an RTF using the "famous" Word macro for formatting. Probably similar results to any other scanning solution. The OpticBook is fantastic if you want to basically be able to scan any book easily, one page at a time. If you are willing to put in a lot of effort and experimentation, other solutions might get you results a little faster (scan two pages at a time, or pull apart a book and use an auto feed scanner, or flat scan two pages at a time and deal with the spine), but I don't think most people will want to deal with those problems. For most people, it's probably easier to take the extra time with the OpticBook and be able to do any book, and not have to worry about the details. Just remember that while the OpticBook is great (and I do recommend it as long as people understand its market niche and the tradeoffs), you do have to invest quite a bit of time an energy to scan a large book. Unless you have the extra time, it's probably only something you'll do for books you REALLY want to have in e-book form, or that you need to convert for some reason.