Czur Scanner

darryl · 06-30-2016, 07:51 AM

There was an earlier thread on this scanner which I have not revived at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...highlight=czur

The Czur Scanner is a budget priced book scanner which was funded on Indiegogo. Whilst usually too conservative to risk my money on a crowd funded project, I was impressed with the promotion and had been so frustrated at previous attempts to scan books that I made an exception. I have now received my scanner and am very pleased with it.

I'm not going to go into enormous detail. The scanner has a number of different modes. The only one I will mention here is via connection with a computer running custom software downloaded from the Net on a suitable version of Windows. I believe a Mac version of the software is in development.

Basically the scanner looks very like a lamp, with a camera at the end of an arm. A black mat comes with the scanner and is placed adjacent to the scanner under the arm with the camera. On selecting scan on the software and selecting book mode, the black mat will be displayed on the screen and the lcd. In other words, a completely black background. The book is placed face-up and open on the black mat. It can be held open and as flat as possible using one or both thumbs in the middle of the left and/or right edges, but not at the top or other locations. It seems that the software allows for this. A press on the foot pedal and the page is scanned. You can then turn to the next page and repeat the process. This can be done fairly quickly, though the promotional video is of course probably an exreme. The software identifes the outline of the book on the black pad, and in book mode compensates for the presecnce of the thumb or thumbs, the curvature of the pages etc. Each image will of course include two book pages. I elected to have the software split these two pages, a simple process. I then loaded these split pages and ran the OCR software to produce a Word document. The results were excellent for a hardback (out of print and no ebook) and a Paperback (also not in print). I then edited the document in Textmaker, which has an excellent export to epub function. A quick spell-check caught most errors, which were surprisingly few. Some errors not detected by the spell-check were obvious on a quick read and fixed via search and replace. For exemple, on one book the software seemed to mistake "the" for "die" on occasions. I also took the trouble to divide the book into chapters and set suitable headings, which enabled Textmaker to generate a TOC. It is early days yet, but it seems to me that it should be possible to produce a vary usable epub consisting only of the text in a very short amount ot time, by simply scanning and spell-checking. Of course, more time would be required for a more polished result, including perhaps things like a cover, Chapter Headings, Footnotes, a TOC etc, and of course correction of any more subtle errors.

I am surprised and pleased with the results. I now have ebooks of two out of print books where no ebook has been made available. These are of course for my own private use and for the sake of my poor eyesight. The hardback book in particular has such small print that I would be very uncomfortable trying to read it.

I partly repeated the process for two pages of one book and have posted some images. One image is the original scan of 2 pages. Two images are those two pages as split by the software. The quality of the images has of course been reduced to comply with Mobileread guidelines. Finally I have attached the word document produced by the OCR software run on the two split pages.

It's early days so far, but I'm very pleased with my purchase at the moment. Not perfect, but a huge improvement over anything else I've tried. It seems that it may actually make scanning some of those books where there is no ebook a viable process. And spare my poor eyes in the process.

pwalker8 · 06-30-2016, 02:25 PM

cool. Thanks.

HarryT · 07-01-2016, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darryl

There was an earlier thread on this scanner which I have not revived at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/index.php

This sounds very interesting. Could you give us a slightly more specific link, rather than a link to the top level of the forums?

andyh2000 · 07-01-2016, 04:33 AM

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...highlight=czur

Andrew

HarryT · 07-01-2016, 04:35 AM

Thanks, Andrew!

darryl · 07-01-2016, 06:21 AM

Thanks Andy. Sorry for mucking up the link. I've now replaced the link in the original post with your correct one.

HarryT · 07-01-2016, 07:04 AM

Thanks, darryl. This sounds like an extremely interesting device. Does the supplied software have the ability to produce a "page scan" PDF, rather than doing OCR?

darryl · 07-01-2016, 08:22 AM

I haven't tried it but once scanned the software supports 3 types of pdf, Image Only, Text, or two layer with text and image. The latter two are searchable.

flameproof · 11-26-2017, 09:14 PM

Sorry for undigging this old topic....

It's the ET16, right? You bought it in China or at home? I noticed the China one is quite a bit cheaper, but was told it doesn't work outside China.

If yours is from China - does it work?

Or anybody here has a direct China import?

darryl · 11-27-2017, 01:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flameproof

Sorry for undigging this old topic....

It's the ET16, right? You bought it in China or at home? I noticed the China one is quite a bit cheaper, but was told it doesn't work outside China.

If yours is from China - does it work?

Or anybody here has a direct China import?

Mine was imported directly from the manufacturer. It's the only Indiegogo campaign I've ever supported. I doubt there was a China only model at that time. It was the ET16. I believe they have just released an updated model.

flameproof · 11-27-2017, 04:50 AM

Well, in China the ET16 is RMB 1980, that's US$ 300, maybe not a bit difference to Amazon price anyway.

I will send an update after I got mine.

A few days later:

I got the scanner. It doesn't work at all. When I press SCAN I get a message "can only be used in mainland china"

Will check with support.

Another bit later....:

I was told China version and export version have different hardware. I am still not sure how that China version sense not being in China. Anyway, there seem to be no easy way around that. They are not selling the export version in China, so a simple exchange can't do.
However, I was told it can work with older software (still 2017 I guess). I installed that and it works fine now.

07-01-2016, 06:21 AM	#6
darryl Wizard Posts: 3,108 Karma: 60231510 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura H2O, Kindle Oasis, Huwei Ascend Mate 7	Thanks Andy. Sorry for mucking up the link. I've now replaced the link in the original post with your correct one. Last edited by darryl; 07-01-2016 at 06:23 AM.

11-27-2017, 04:50 AM	#11
flameproof Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Sony PRS-T1	Well, in China the ET16 is RMB 1980, that's US$ 300, maybe not a bit difference to Amazon price anyway. I will send an update after I got mine. A few days later: I got the scanner. It doesn't work at all. When I press SCAN I get a message "can only be used in mainland china" Will check with support. Another bit later....: I was told China version and export version have different hardware. I am still not sure how that China version sense not being in China. Anyway, there seem to be no easy way around that. They are not selling the export version in China, so a simple exchange can't do. However, I was told it can work with older software (still 2017 I guess). I installed that and it works fine now. Last edited by flameproof; 12-05-2017 at 10:43 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Czur scanner	PeterT	General Discussions	12	05-27-2016 11:57 PM
Is This Scanner Any Good?	NVash	Workshop	6	10-11-2011 03:26 PM
Scanner recommendation	Skydog	Workshop	24	05-11-2010 02:22 PM
DIY Scanner	Eratosthenes	News	14	04-16-2010 04:21 PM
New Scanner, Need Advice on What Comes Next	kazbates	Workshop	25	01-11-2010 09:23 AM

06-30-2016, 02:25 PM	#2
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,195 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	cool. Thanks.

07-01-2016, 04:33 AM	#4
andyh2000 Avid reader Posts: 826 Karma: 6377682 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: UK Device: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 / Kindle Paperwhite	https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...highlight=czur Andrew

07-01-2016, 04:35 AM	#5
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Thanks, Andrew!

07-01-2016, 07:04 AM	#7
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Thanks, darryl. This sounds like an extremely interesting device. Does the supplied software have the ability to produce a "page scan" PDF, rather than doing OCR?

07-01-2016, 08:22 AM	#8
darryl Wizard Posts: 3,108 Karma: 60231510 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura H2O, Kindle Oasis, Huwei Ascend Mate 7	I haven't tried it but once scanned the software supports 3 types of pdf, Image Only, Text, or two layer with text and image. The latter two are searchable.

11-26-2017, 09:14 PM	#9
flameproof Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Sony PRS-T1	Sorry for undigging this old topic.... It's the ET16, right? You bought it in China or at home? I noticed the China one is quite a bit cheaper, but was told it doesn't work outside China. If yours is from China - does it work? Or anybody here has a direct China import?