Scanning books

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by crossi

Almost seems it might be easier to simply re-type it. Depending on how fast you type.

No.

The computer can "retype" (OCR) the entire book within a few seconds/minutes, then it's just up to you to proofread and make sure it's as close to 100% correct as possible.

And remember, a book is not just the raw/plain text—the formatting itself (bold/italics/superscript) is just as important.

I wrote about this exact subject back in:

• 2014: "Can you OCR the images inside of .pdf files?"
• 2020: "OCRing + EPUBing my first book: Tips?"

There's a heck of a lot more layers to digitizing a book than just the surface-level text.

Why not let the computer do 99% correct work within seconds, then you focus your time on comparing and correcting based on the original—you know, the part the human is good at!

[Karellen]

Came across another book scanning clip... https://imgur.com/gallery/675dExQ

Looks like this uses a camera setup, though it is not visible.

What a tedious job...

[andyh2000]

I see I commented on this thread back in December 2022 saying I'd 'scanned' one paperback using an overhead camera setup and that was enough for me. I've now used the (Czur) device in anger a second time - for producing an electronic copy of a large format paperback quiz book. I didn't need to OCR it, just wanted a decent digital copy to go on my laptop. For that the machine was perfect. OK I ended up with backache after doing it but that's due to my extremely unergonomic crowded desk rather than the device. It's got a foot pedal so you really can go quite fast once you get into the rhythm of it. And their processing software cleverly removes the special finger cots from the final image.

This is the version I've got: https://shop.czur.com/products/czur-...40181057617968

Sample page:


Andrew

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by tomsem

...
I have yet to use it for a real project, but I think it's better than anything out there for under $500. My only worry is that there is no 3rd party software that works with it...

I've now got mine plugged into a Windows 11 PC and it works fine with the normal built-in camera app as well as Czur's software. So I don't see why it wouldn't work with anything else too.

Andrew

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

I've now got mine plugged into a Windows 11 PC and it works fine with the normal built-in camera app as well as Czur's software. So I don't see why it wouldn't work with anything else too.

Andrew

Some or maybe all of the Czur models are supposed to work on Linux.
I've a SCSI scanner (from 2001!) with ADF and a network MFPC with ADF both working on Linux. However I might try setting up my 20.1 M pixel Canon EOS 70D. The SCSI adaptor was originally part of a RAID system on a server because I don't have the right SCSI cable for the simple PCI cards. It also might be my only decent PC left with a PCI slot.

The better camera based scanners have lasers and software to straighten the page / flatten curl. That software will be model specific from vendor and usually need Windows. The cheaper camera systems don't seem any better than my DSLR.
The flatbed scanner with ADF is only any good for stuff small enough and the spine cut off.

[andyh2000]

I actually previously tried the Czur ET16 plus which had laser lines to help flatten pages but for some reason (I've forgotten what) I didn't get on with it.

I'll have to dig it out of the cupboard and try it again.

Andrew

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

I actually previously tried the Czur ET16 plus which had laser lines to help flatten pages but for some reason (I've forgotten what) I didn't get on with it.

I'll have to dig it out of the cupboard and try it again.

Andrew

Make sure you download the correct application from Czur!

It gets good reviews.

[drofgnal]

I have a couple of old out of print text books, I'd love to have scanned into PDF. One was out of print when I was a grad student 40 years ago. Is there a service that does this when it doesn't violate copyright?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

I have a couple of old out of print text books, I'd love to have scanned into PDF. One was out of print when I was a grad student 40 years ago. Is there a service that does this when it doesn't violate copyright?

Yes, there are. Most cut off the spine, effectively destroying the book, because it's faster.

There are even services that do it for copyright books. Google won a court case to be allowed to do it as long as they don't publish/share the work. I think they should have lost, but that's another story.

[jackm8]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

I have a couple of old out of print text books, I'd love to have scanned into PDF. One was out of print when I was a grad student 40 years ago. Is there a service that does this when it doesn't violate copyright?

If it's really just a couple, and don't involve detailed photos, you can do them yourself. I remember doing one on a very old pnshoot camera way back. Modern phones with fairly decent light setup should be more than capable of surpassing my old efforts. Fix a phone on a firm stand, place a light close to the book, and take a photo of every even page, then do the same for odd pages. After that you process the files a little in image editor and combine them into pdf. It's fairly easy technical process that nets very good results. I'm willing to help if you're completely clueless regarding technical aspects.

Read "Cardboard Scanner" section on this site regarding details. Article is pretty old, but still contains valid information. At least up to step 10. There are easier ways of accomplishing all that's described in that section using modern software.
https://www.diybookscanner.org/en/intro.html
https://www.instructables.com/Bargai...Cardboard-Box/

Just make sure to check https://archive.org/ before you start, it's possible that
they're up there already.

[drofgnal]

Thanks to you both. I found one book on archive.org, but it says downloadable PDF is not available. I'll just stick with the paper copy I have. I did buy another one from Abe Books in pretty decent shape, my original, which was bought used back then is in sad shape with the spine held together with tape.