Technology Scan book into computer. Scan feed?

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rox1co

ro.co
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has anyone ever scanned their entire book into their computer? it sounds very tedious so i'm trying to find the best way to do it. i really don't wanna carry around 2 fat ass books plus my fat ass backpack and my fat-self :laugh: anymore!!!

i do have a scanner, but if i am to scan it and leave it on automatically, the pages will not correspond since it only scans one side at a time. i really do not want to sit their flipping it over etc.

is there such a thing as a 2-sided scanner? does a store such as Kinkos do this by chance?

i could get my books unbinded but i really don't want to do that, but if there is a possibility that i can get them scanned into my computer than it must be done.

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I don't think a professional store like Kinkos would do it because of possible copyright infringement. That being said, just carry them around. All the hype about a bookbag hurting your back is nonsense, haha, or so I hope.
 
There is such a thing as a 2-sided scanner. You'd have to destroy the book to do it though.
 
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I don't think a professional store like Kinkos would do it because of possible copyright infringement. That being said, just carry them around. All the hype about a bookbag hurting your back is nonsense, haha, or so I hope.
true that. but about the bookbag hurting the back, my back hurts ATM :( so pfft.
 
There is such a thing as a 2-sided scanner. You'd have to destroy the book to do it though.
it's a necessary evil! manufacturer? prob cost a lot so damn ...
 
Yes there are two sided scanners, and if you want to use a feed scanner you're going to need loose pages. A double sided scanner's probably gonna run at least $500-600, not a worthwhile investment for your purposes IMHO. If you want to do single side scanning, and if you have a scanner with a feed on it, chances are it came with a program that will allow you to do the following:

1. Cut the binding off to get loose pages.
2. Scan the odd pages, you should have the option of each page being scanned into a separate file in a folder.
3. Scan the even pages (same way).
4. Go through and organize the order - for a 100 page book (I know, but lets use 100 for simplicity) the odds would be files 1-50 and the evens would be 51-100, so the order should be:1, 51, 2, 52, etc.
5. Merge the files into a single file

After that I'd take the loose pages and put them in a 3 ring binder.

If you don't have a program that'll let you do that, a common program packaged with industrial scanners is PaperPort: http://www.nuance.com/paperport/standard/
You can buy it or if you're into the piracy thing you can d/l it with bittorrent or something like that.
 
I'll probably get reprimanded for this, but if you already bought the physical book I see nothing ethically wrong about going on the net (various textbook warez sites) and finding a PDF version of the book. I did this with my Biochemistry book, and just read it from my laptop and left the book at home.
 
As the above poster stated....it is possible to get some textbooks from the web which would be perfectly legal if you already own the textbook.

That said...it's hard to find it on regular sites, and the sites that have such materials are fairly hard to join. (I'm not going to mention names, but Forbes ran an article about online piracy websites and one of them was described as a thinking man's website because of it's huge archive of reading material)

Still, it's probably easier to join one of those sites than to scan your entire book yourself.

And no, don't PM me because I'm not a member at these sites anyway, I just know they have textbooks and USMLE prep materials and whatnot. Just don't cry to me when you get busted by the...well I dunno what the association for book publishers is called, lol.

By the way, if you're serious about scanning your textbook (since even if you managed to get onto a textbook piracy website they might not have your exact textbook anyway) you can get a specialized book scanner so you don't have to unbind your book.

http://www.kirtastech.com/APT_1200.asp <--- it looks like that

But uhh...it's obscenely expensive, so I wouldn't really even consider buying one. If you can somehow get access to one though that would be pretty awesome. (by obscenely expensive I mean $150,000)
 
just to make it clear, i'm not into the book piracy thing! lol, i want to go to Med School one day, i'm not that stupid :)

i'm actually discouraged now to even do it. the whole piracy issue and cost, screw it! i'll just go to my car to switch out books.

oh and i did go my book publisher's website, i found my chemistry book with a link to it's PDF version. i have to sign up with Safari and it costs ~$90 for a "subscription," how ridiculous is that? i bought my book for like $10 on Amazon.
 
Hey rox1co,

I have scanned at least 5 College books onto my computer and scanned a crap load of lab note books, assignments and what not for personal use. I could afford to do this is because the scanner is fast. The reason why I did this was because I had a PC tablet which I could use to highlight and have ALL my notes on. In addition, I could copy and paste all the pictures and what not into my Microsoft OneNote. This was really useful because I commute to college and it is a long ass trek sometimes and I would not have to carry all my books. It also makes referencing and availability of info so much easier.

Although it is a pain in the ass, it took me about 3 hours to completely scan a 400-500 page book, another hour to place it into a pdf and put bookmark chapters in it. You could even OCR it to make it text searchable! I usually did this about 1-2 weeks before the start of any semester so it did not eat into valuable studying time. Also, I often did this while watching movies or sports so it isn't as boring as it sounds haha. But trust me, this is totally worth it if you don't mind working off of your computer sometimes.

So the scanner that I used is called an OpticBook 3600 Scanner. It is really great because it allows you to scan each page RIGHT TO THE EDGE of the scanner, so you don't get those ugly dark scans. The design of the scanner will allow you to make really crisp images. In addition, you only have to calibrate it once and you're set to scan at about 4-6 pages/minute. Also, the scanning software provided can autonumber your pages and also autoflip every other page.

The scanner has some downsides though like poor photoquality scans but you would not really buy it for this reason. Also it is slightly expensive compared to other generic scanners at about $250 Canadian with my college discount. However, this is probably the best purchase I have made in my University career.

Also the idea of chopping off the binding of your book to scan does not always work. I heard lots of problems related to this because the type of paper used for some textbooks could get caught in the automatic feeder.

If you have any questions about this sorta scanning business, don't hesitate to PM me.
 
just to make it clear, i'm not into the book piracy thing! lol, i want to go to Med School one day, i'm not that stupid :)

i'm actually discouraged now to even do it. the whole piracy issue and cost, screw it! i'll just go to my car to switch out books.

oh and i did go my book publisher's website, i found my chemistry book with a link to it's PDF version. i have to sign up with Safari and it costs ~$90 for a "subscription," how ridiculous is that? i bought my book for like $10 on Amazon.
Well, it's not copyright infringement if you already own the book and are downloading a scanned version of that same book. Of course, uploading anything would make you a copyright infringer, and bittorrent uploads as you download so I guess you would be a pirate (yargh!).

But anyways, funny you should mention the piracy with med school thing because it seems like a good number of the people who would actually go pirate a textbook actually are med students...who else would be downloading USMLE First Aid PDFs. I think regular kids aren't nearly as dorky as to resort to this sort of thing.
 
I MIGHT have cut the pages out of a book one time and just used a grad student copier which has a scan function and emails the pdf to you when finished. It was a cheap book though..I'd be weary with the nice one.
 
Hey, I do this for people in the medical field all of the time. One guy brought me a book last week that was 3-4 inches thick and wanted it cut up into chapters and spiral bound in chapter segments. It saves him having to lug the whole book around when he only needs the current chapter. I just cut the spine off the book ($1.49) and coil bind it ($4.99). I am planning on doing this with my text books in the fall. Too bad I wont get the Kinko's discount then (free).

As far as scanning the book goes, Kinko's would just cut the spine and then run it through a double sided scanner/ copier. It would make a pdf of each page in consecutive order. You will have to find the right Kinko's employee to do this for you because we are not supposed to copy and copyrighted material and especially not books. It doesn't matter whether you own the book or not. This method could also come out pretty expensive at 99cents a page.

My advice would be, let Kinko's cut the spine of the book off, then copy it on the copiers in the lobby (that way the employees can claim that they didn't see you do it). Copy the book from double sided to single sided, then use your personal scanner to scan each single sided page.

Another note about Kinko's
Your price depends completely on the person who rings you up. That might seem obvious, but keep it in mind. If you are patient and treat the person well, they will charge you a good. If you are impatient and type A personality you will be charged the jerk tax (every possible charge you qualify for like staple, folding, opening a file, burning a disk, rush order.....)

If you have any questions feel free to PM me
 
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