Advice requested for hardware (etc.) for scanning books

[rnott]

I have been scanning books from my personal library for personal use.
Naively, I have been doing this with a Canon N620U, which is REALLY
slow (though otherwise quite ok).

I have also been trying to use a 7 Megapixel digital Nikon camera with
a tripod, but the main problem there is distorted images that my
Optical Character Recocnizer (OCR, I'm using Omniscan Pro) has trouble
turning into text.

I tried to survey the field of high speed scanners by Web searching for
entries like (scanner AND ppm), the ppm for pages per minute, but the
results are in the tens of thousands and bewildering.

Can anyone out there point me to some practical advice about affordable
scanners (or whatever alternatives there are) for scanning books, with
the aim of turning them into electronic text that can be OCRed?
(How does Google do this sort of thing for http://books.google.com/ ???
I'm sure "affordable" is not an object for them, though.)

Thanks for any advice and help,

Wolfgang,
Santa Barbara, CA

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Can anyone out there point me to some practical advice about affordable
scanners (or whatever alternatives there are) for scanning books, with
the aim of turning them into electronic text that can be OCRed?
(How does Google do this sort of thing for http://books.google.com/ ???
I'm sure "affordable" is not an object for them, though.)

There is a specialized scanner for books but if you have to ask . . . .
well, you really can't afford it. But you may find a local one that you can
rent. It photographs each page with two separate cameras and turns the
pages. It doesn't need to break the book's back either:
http://www.kirtas-tech.com

There is another model which is much cheaper (but still expensive) where the
scan goes right to one edge so you put the spine there:
http://www.plustek.com/products/book.htm

 

[rnott]

Speed (ppm, pages per minute) at an affordable price (up to a few
hundred dollars) is my main consideration.

I can't find any information on the speed of the Plustek Optibooks.
And also, I prefer flatbed scanners, so I can scan two pages at ones,
doubling scanning speed. In this regard, the Optibook, where the scan
goes right to one edge (and you put the spine there), is actually an
undesirable feature. "Breaking the back" of a book is not a concern,
and slight distortions of the scanned image is still ok.

SCANNING SPEED (ppm) is at premium.

(Too bad Kirtas is way out of my price range :-/ ).

So, future posts, would you please add info on scanning speed (ppm), if
you have any.

Thanks,
Wolfgang

 

[Dave]

Speed (ppm, pages per minute) at an affordable price (up to a few
hundred dollars) is my main consideration.

I can't find any information on the speed of the Plustek Optibooks.
And also, I prefer flatbed scanners, so I can scan two pages at ones,
doubling scanning speed. In this regard, the Optibook, where the scan
goes right to one edge (and you put the spine there), is actually an
undesirable feature. "Breaking the back" of a book is not a concern,
and slight distortions of the scanned image is still ok.

SCANNING SPEED (ppm) is at premium.

(Too bad Kirtas is way out of my price range :-/ ).

So, future posts, would you please add info on scanning speed (ppm), if
you have any.

Thanks,
Wolfgang

According to their specs, the 3600 scans an A4 page in color in 7
seconds. Is that fast enough??

Hope this helps,
Dave

 

[rnott]

7 secs per page is just over 10 pages per minute, that's fast enough.

Meanwhile, I have been searching on and came across the

CanoScan 9950F. It lists its speed as

11 msec / line (B&W and Color, 2400 dpi and 4800 dpi) for photos and
documents,

and

5.5 - 88 msec / line for film. Not sure how that translates into PPM,


but I'm guessing it's fast enough as the machine is getting excellent
reviews, incl. for speed, but customers at Amazon. In addition, it
apparently has great film/slide scanning capabilities, something I
hadn't even thought about, but that I will also want ultimately.

So perhaps I found something acceptable in the CanoScan 9950F (for $400
at Amazon).

Still interested in further info on what you guys out there have found.

Thanks,
Wolfgang.