MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Please suggest scanner/software for 50 novels

Jim Thompson · 11-06-2009, 01:08 AM

Thanks. I think I'm getting it. For my purposes, I would usually have about 200 pages -- all with the same zoning. I realize there may be exceptions, but I think a single zoning approach will work for all of most novels.

The most common scenerio might be: 1. header, 2. text, 3. footer (page #). Some of the pages won't have a header or a footer, but they will tend to have nothing I need printed that high or low; i.e., in that zone block.

About page 4 might be the first that has standard header/footer. So after scanning the 200 pages, I would use ABBYY Profesional to select the 4th page, I would use the mouse to draw 3 zones: 1) header, 2) text, 3) footer. I would tell ABBYY that I want to ignore (eliminate from OCR) the header and footer zone. Then I would save those zone blocks. Then I would want to select all 200 pages (is that one-click/operation?) and apply the zone blocks to all 200 pages (again just one click/operation?). Is that how it would work?

Sorry to be so inexperienced.

I looked at some novels to write this and see a challenge. On some novels there is as little as 1/8" between the header and the body of the text. What's worse, the pages are not physically consistent. When I measure the inches from the top of the physical piece of paper to the printed header, it may vary by 1/8" or so. Also, the variation can be page-by-page (as opposed to 50 pages one way and 50 pages another). Ouch! Those books will be a challenge if I can't get them printed in a different format. Do you have any suggestions for easy block zoning with that kind of book or will those require eyeballing each page???

11-06-2009, 01:08 AM	#30
Jim Thompson Member Posts: 16 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: iPhone	Thanks. I think I'm getting it. For my purposes, I would usually have about 200 pages -- all with the same zoning. I realize there may be exceptions, but I think a single zoning approach will work for all of most novels. The most common scenerio might be: 1. header, 2. text, 3. footer (page #). Some of the pages won't have a header or a footer, but they will tend to have nothing I need printed that high or low; i.e., in that zone block. About page 4 might be the first that has standard header/footer. So after scanning the 200 pages, I would use ABBYY Profesional to select the 4th page, I would use the mouse to draw 3 zones: 1) header, 2) text, 3) footer. I would tell ABBYY that I want to ignore (eliminate from OCR) the header and footer zone. Then I would save those zone blocks. Then I would want to select all 200 pages (is that one-click/operation?) and apply the zone blocks to all 200 pages (again just one click/operation?). Is that how it would work? Sorry to be so inexperienced. I looked at some novels to write this and see a challenge. On some novels there is as little as 1/8" between the header and the body of the text. What's worse, the pages are not physically consistent. When I measure the inches from the top of the physical piece of paper to the printed header, it may vary by 1/8" or so. Also, the variation can be page-by-page (as opposed to 50 pages one way and 50 pages another). Ouch! Those books will be a challenge if I can't get them printed in a different format. Do you have any suggestions for easy block zoning with that kind of book or will those require eyeballing each page???