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Just got a scanner, curious about how you guys do it


miketheratguy

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Wasn't sure if this was the right section or not since it's not directly related to the site, but it's still a "how do I" subject so I figured I'd give it a try. :)

 

So anyway I just got a scanner over the weekend. It's nothing industrial or even expensive. It's a basic Canon all-in one scanner / printer / copier from Wal-Mart. I should point out that I probably wouldn't be using it to contribute anything to the site. Not that I'd be against the idea - in fact I think it would be cool to help out - but rather because I'm sure that it doesn't come close to the site's professional-quality standards.

 

I bought it primarily to make backup copies of my photos, drawings and documents but then I started thinking about how fun it would be to make my own ebooks (the resolution limits won't matter as much on a small screen). I have no idea how to cleanly go about doing this though, so I figured that I'd ask you guys. In short, how do you go about de-binding a book that uses glue other than staples, and does the book have to be completely destroyed or is it at all salvageable in the process? Is there a way to get it back together once you're finished? I'd love to hear your advice as I take my first amateur steps towards book preservation.

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I use a heat gun on bound magazines.  It allows the pages to be pulled out pretty quickly and easily, but unless you want to keep the loose pages, there's really nothing to be done with them once they've been scanned, so I throw them away.  I suppose you could pay a lot of money and have them professionally rebound, but if you cared that much about a book, why would you de-bind it in the first place?

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If you're unlucky, some glue will still be on the pages, making them a bitch to scan using an ADF scanner.  So hopefully all the glue stays on the spine.  The first and last page (those directly next to the cover) are the most likely to have glue residue.  But within seconds of having the heat taken off, the glue returns to its hardened state - there's no stickiness.

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I'd be curious about either. I suppose, worst-case scenario, I could always still keep the original book and just hole-punch everything to put it into some kind of binder once I'm done scanning. That way I could continue to keep a physical copy after creating the digital one. Or just buy second copies of whatever I scan, I guess. They're mostly old books that aren't particularly rare.

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If you're trying to make ebooks that are text-only, you could just lay them on a flatbed to scan and have an OCR program turn them into a PDF or whatever.  Although if you're talking paperbacks, that'll still probably ruin the spine.

 

Hmm, that's worth looking into. Many of the books that I'd be looking to convert would be text only.

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