# Scan a Book in Five Minutes



## Ask Mr. Religion (Nov 8, 2015)

I am betting this will be a game changer for home users who want to convert books, especially the old ones no longer in print, to digital libraries:

http://www.teleread.com/publishing/...art-scanner-with-foot-pedal-and-wifi-support/

I will let you know how it works when I get mine in January.


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## Timmay (Nov 8, 2015)

Oh man this will be the first project I ever back. Hope I don't regret it. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Jerusalem Blade (Nov 8, 2015)

Looks great, Patrick! I have a very slow scanner, which makes scanning tedious. Do let us know how it works, please.


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## KMK (Nov 9, 2015)

To what kind of file does it scan? pdf?


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## earl40 (Nov 9, 2015)

Nice! I like how it takes out the distortion in the center of the book. Also I wonder if it filters out the fingers holding the pages.


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Nov 9, 2015)

KMK said:


> To what kind of file does it scan? pdf?


The project page:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/czur-scanner-build-your-own-digital-library/x/12702669#/

From the page and videos it looks like you get pdf and it uses ABBY Finereader OCR software so eventually you can also create MS Word docs.

The second video at the site above is informative about how fast the process takes, too. Looks like it also scans 3D objects from that video.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## NaphtaliPress (Nov 9, 2015)

Could this scan oversized books like old photo albums?


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Nov 9, 2015)

NaphtaliPress said:


> Could this scan oversized books like old photo albums?


From the specs given, A3 is the maximum size, 11.69 by 16.54 inches.


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## VictorBravo (Nov 10, 2015)

Ask Mr. Religion said:


> I am betting this will be a game changer for home users who want to convert books, especially the old ones no longer in print, to digital libraries:
> 
> http://www.teleread.com/publishing/...art-scanner-with-foot-pedal-and-wifi-support/
> 
> I will let you know how it works when I get mine in January.



That looks clever.

I scanned my three volumes of Turretin's _Institutes_ (for my personal use only!) using a Pentax K 50 on a tripod and a piece of glass over the pages. It took longer than 15 minutes for three volumes, though.

As I got into the rhythm, I reached around 24 pages a minute, or around a half hour per volume.

But then I had to combine the images using Adobe Acrobat Pro, crop, correct, and OCR them. In the end I think it took more than an hour per volume of fiddling, plus the time it took to OCR the whole thing and then process the pdf to a manageable size. 

The easiest time I've had scanning books is to take a table saw to the spine and then run the pages through an autofeed double-sided scanner! [No worries, Chris: they were old law form books and construction reference manuals, not classics.]


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Nov 10, 2015)

I know what you mean, Victor. A few months ago I dismantled an oversized book into individual pages for scanning/OCR related to my consulting work. It took me over 8 hours on a single page flatbed scanner with no sheet feeder to complete the process. But worth the time and effort as I now have instant search access to its contents and amaze clients with my efficiency.


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## NaphtaliPress (Nov 10, 2015)

too bad; I have like a ton of large albums that need to be archived for family history preservation. I imagine large devices are significantly more expensive.


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Nov 11, 2015)

NaphtaliPress said:


> too bad; I have like a ton of large albums that need to be archived for family history preservation. I imagine large devices are significantly more expensive.


Seems to me one could rig up their own poor-man's version of the product. A high-resolution camera pointing downward and its wide angle lens used to photograph these album pages. Then import the pictures taken and then use ABBYFineReader to convert.


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## Semper Fidelis (Nov 13, 2015)

This thing is a dream come true!


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## Wayne (Nov 13, 2015)

This do-it-yourself web site has been around for quite some time, and looks to have not been updated since 2013, though the attached discussion forum is current:

http://www.diybookscanner.org


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