good scanner for books ?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

I live in the north eastern Pennsylvanian wilderness, so I’m safe on all counts.

I'm sure that the proper software and equipment would make it so much easier. But I don't have a strong urge to convert most of my books.

Over the recent years I've given away many of my books, keeping (mostly) those that I know I'll want to reread later.


I just did a quick count. I have about 30 - 35 books that I would really like to convert and wouldn't mind cutting up. I could probably find more in the 4 active bookcases, and another 25 -35 out in the shed.

Compared to buying ebook replacements, where possible, getting a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 would probably be a better deal. If only I had the money for all the better deals out there. I've never seen them in the Flea Market, but do they ever come up for sale there?

For less than a hundred books, buying an s1500 and a good guillotine would not be very cost effective, even if you could find them at half price (unless you have use for them otherwise). You would do better with your camera method if you had the right software. If you have access to a flatbed scanner, you could always saw off the spines (do not saw off spines if you use an ADF scanner; the dust will kill it) and scan that way which would simplify your work. Cutting off the spines so the pages will lay flat will also make make using a camera easier.

[SameOldStory]

After reading your reviews and descriptions of the ease with which you converted your books and magazines I would find it hard to redo it the way I did.

If worst comes to worse, I could learn to read from paper again, maybe.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

After reading your reviews and descriptions of the ease with which you converted your books and magazines I would find it hard to redo it the way I did.

If worst comes to worse, I could learn to read from paper again, maybe.

Read from paper? AAAACK!

It would be worth it to do it the way, say, Iain and I have done it if you had over a thousand books to do like we do. I'm taking a really simplistic approach due to a lack of time (and energy!) and not bothering with OCR. Most e-book readers will not read the resulting image type PDFs very well but I've had fairly good luck with the JetBook Lite when away from the house (a compromise but better than nothing) and I use my 32" TV (patched into my computer) to read at home; I actually like the TV better than using a reader.

[SameOldStory]

If you figure in the cost of re-buying the books as ebooks it would be a breakeven thing at about a hundred books. Add in the books I have that are out of print, and it could be worth it.

After that I could start going to used book stores again. The only problem there is that many of the books that I buy now only cost $3 to $6 now. On the other hand I lost books over time, and there're many books that I never did buy for one reason or another....

Now if I could convince my wife that it was a computer controlled air freshener....

But definitely not by Christmas. There must be a way.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

If you figure in the cost of re-buying the books as ebooks it would be a breakeven thing at about a hundred books. Add in the books I have that are out of print, and it could be worth it.

After that I could start going to used book stores again. The only problem there is that many of the books that I buy now only cost $3 to $6 now. On the other hand I lost books over time, and there're many books that I never did buy for one reason or another....

Now if I could convince my wife that it was a computer controlled air freshener....

But definitely not by Christmas. There must be a way.

Start saving your pennies. I have to go on a mustard sandwich (without the bread) diet everytime I buy something. Speaking of buying something, I'm going on that mustard sandwich diet because I just ordered a Canon CanoScan 9000F Color Image Scanner from Amazon. My old Epson Perfection 1660 Photo scanner is getting pretty long in the tooth, has been acting up, and it isn't compatable with anything above XP. Being the cheap old bitch I am, I had been waiting for it to go on sale and it finally did.

[SameOldStory]

That reminds me of way back when I had a 13 or 14 inch monitor. I turned it on one day and it started to spark and smoke. I instantly knew what to do. I turned it off, ran and got my wife, and showed her how it was behaving. Then I bought a huge 17 inch monitor that was on sale for $600.

Not all things that go bad are disasters.

[toddbeall]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Start saving your pennies. I have to go on a mustard sandwich (without the bread) diet everytime I buy something. Speaking of buying something, I'm going on that mustard sandwich diet because I just ordered a Canon CanoScan 9000F Color Image Scanner from Amazon. My old Epson Perfection 1660 Photo scanner is getting pretty long in the tooth, has been acting up, and it isn't compatable with anything above XP. Being the cheap old bitch I am, I had been waiting for it to go on sale and it finally did.

Lady Fitz, how do you like your Canon CanoScan 9000F? I am thinking about buying it for non-destructive scanning of books. Do you think it might serve that purpose fairly well?

Thanks!
Todd

[armandaaa]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

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.

i am a novice and a confused one. i want to scan pocketbooks as you have described but would like to know if there is a fujitsu that that do about the same as the s1500 cheaper available or is this the only one. i saw the s510 but i cant find out if it will do the same/ your kind advise would be appreciated. thank you in advance apparently five more words are required so here they are. thanks for patience

[armandaaa]

five more characters

[jbacelar]

The best scanner for books: A photo camera.

Look here: http://www.diybookscanner.org/

And especially here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Barg...Cardboard-Box/