How do you keep your sanity? scanning a book

[mypolar]

I have decided to scan an old favorite book that is not in ebook format yet. Well............ its making me a bit crazy. I have done less than 50 pages and have about 350 more to go and wondering is it really this difficult or am I just slow?

I'm using a basic scanner/printer- can feed pages - but only about 10 at a time. My biggest problem : there are 2 sides to every page!!! EEK Its making me batty to reorder these pages from 2,4,6,8 to 1,2,3,4 .I can't imagine doing this for 400 pages. No plans for purchase another scanner anytime soon

How are people handling scanning from a flat bed scanner- any tips or advice welcome.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by mypolar

I have decided to scan an old favorite book that is not in ebook format yet. Well............ its making me a bit crazy. I have done less than 50 pages and have about 350 more to go and wondering is it really this difficult or am I just slow?

I'm using a basic scanner/printer- can feed pages - but only about 10 at a time. My biggest problem : there are 2 sides to every page!!! EEK Its making me batty to reorder these pages from 2,4,6,8 to 1,2,3,4 .I can't imagine doing this for 400 pages. No plans for purchase another scanner anytime soon

How are people handling scanning from a flat bed scanner- any tips or advice welcome.

It takes time, work, and good OCR software, which isn't free. I recommend ABBYY Finereader 10 Express. Not that the full package isn't good, but $400 is way too much...

To become a scanner takes time and dedication. And then proof-reading take much more time than scanning. I figure 24-40 hours per 300 page book.

It's not like ripping a CD.....

[Mr. Dalliard]

Ha!

I have been engaged in a huge bilingual scanning and OCRing project for the past few months. On a good night I can get through 400 pages, while watching a movie or something. The most difficult thing is that the books are encyclopaedia-like volumes and, therefore are rather heavy.

I have about another 4000 pages to go.

[KoopaOne]

Epson V30 --> Finereader 8. Can scan roughly 300-400 pages an hour while watching a movie.
Another 1-2 hours for checking the marked sequences in Finereader.
Export to Word.
Another 1-2 hours for the basic layout.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by mypolar

I have decided to scan an old favorite book that is not in ebook format yet. Well.... its making me a bit crazy. I have done less than 50 pages and have about 350 more to go and wondering is it really this difficult or am I just slow?

Hardware matters. A scanner that will read both sides of the page at once changes things a lot. So does a faster scanner--but they cost more. Sometimes a lot more.

Software matters. Some programs make the scanning go easier by absorbing pages as quickly as the scanner can read them; others make you click through something to save out each page as it's scanned.

How are people handling scanning from a flat bed scanner- any tips or advice welcome.

Get an MP3 player loaded with music you like, or set up the scanner in front of the tv so you can watch movies & scan. After you get the initial setup arranged, it's time-consuming but not brain-consuming. Find something else to think about so you're not just watching pages show up on the screen.

[Sullivan]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Hardware matters. A scanner that will read both sides of the page at once changes things a lot. So does a faster scanner--but they cost more. Sometimes a lot more.

Software matters. Some programs make the scanning go easier by absorbing pages as quickly as the scanner can read them; others make you click through something to save out each page as it's scanned.


Get an MP3 player loaded with music you like, or set up the scanner in front of the tv so you can watch movies & scan. After you get the initial setup arranged, it's time-consuming but not brain-consuming. Find something else to think about so you're not just watching pages show up on the screen.

I'd have to agree, it can get big dizzying or brain numbingly repetitive to watch pages over and over again. Good luck

[mypolar]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

To become a scanner takes time and dedication. And then proof-reading take much more time than scanning. I figure 24-40 hours per 300 page book.

It's not like ripping a CD.....

Thanks Ralph Sir Edward for the reply- sorry for the late response but had some computer issues- probably from all of this scanning Anyway don't have any plans to complete scanning this book- too time consuming and agree on your estimate of 24-40 hours! I would be completely nuts by then!

Michelle

[mypolar]

Originally Posted by Sullivan

I'd have to agree, it can get big dizzying or brain numbingly repetitive to watch pages over and over again. Good luck

Yep it is very dizzying! Will put this project on hold for now. Too time consuming. To top things off my PDF creater software does not keep the pages in proper order even though I make the files named book1, book2, book3 etc. Having to rearranage every PDF of 50 pages is....

[mypolar]

Originally Posted by Mr. Dalliard

Ha!

I have been engaged in a huge bilingual scanning and OCRing project for the past few months. On a good night I can get through 400 pages, while watching a movie or something. The most difficult thing is that the books are encyclopaedia-like volumes and, therefore are rather heavy.

I have about another 4000 pages to go.

WOW your are my hero

[mypolar]

[QUOTE=Elfwreck;739649]Hardware matters. A scanner that will read both sides of the page at once changes things a lot. So does a faster scanner--but they cost more. Sometimes a lot more.

Software matters. Some programs make the scanning go easier by absorbing pages as quickly as the scanner can read them; others make you click through something to save out each page as it's scanned.




I agree- will wait until I can get a better scanner and software.This one side at a time and reording pages is not fun. Putting this task on hold for now. My love for this book has tappered off with each page scanned , edited and reordered