![]() ![]() OCR is key for being able to search within a book and copy text out of it. Just for fun, here’s what you get with Google Books, who does their own scanning:Īnd the scan of the 2nd edition I was working with before: ![]() ![]() There’s the touch-up option that promises to be even better, but I was satisfied without it. My only criticisms are that the scan is slightly askew, and the text is fainter than I’d like it to be (possibly due to the slightly glossy finish of the pages). It’s a book I use at regular but infrequent intervals, weighs in at a hefty 3 pounds and 600 pages, and for which an official ebook is not available. I have several books I’d like to digitize, but started with Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. There’s also a free automated feature called Fine Tune that optimizes scans for target devices like the iPhone, iPad, Kindle, and Nook. Options include OCR for $1 per set, high resolution (600 dpi) for $2 per set, and touch-up such as angle correction and compression for $2 per set. If that’s a dealbreaker, there are services offering a non-destructive option, but expect to pay a premium. In other words, you won’t be seeing your book again. This is a destructive process, where the book spine is cut off to improve and expedite scanning. How it works is that you mail them your book, and they scan it and send it back as a PDF. As their name suggests, books can be scanned for as little as $1. You could DIY and build your own book scanner (costing anywhere from $300 to $1,500), but is there an easier way? At Your ServiceĮnter 1DollarScan. And you’ve got all these expensive books already sitting on the shelf. Unfortunately, not all books are available in digital format, and may never be. Anyone who’s dealt with textbooks or moved recently will attest to the value in that. A thousand ebooks weigh the same and take up the same physical space as one. You can load up all your books on all your devices. With books, there are downsides to going digital, but perhaps the greatest upside is that they become omnipresent. The futurist dream of a paperless world is slowly but surely becoming reality. Last June, ebook sales surpassed hardcovers for all of the US. In 2011, for the first time, Amazon sold more Kindle ebooks than paperbacks. ![]()
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