Know How... 51

Today's episode was inspired by viewer Tony Paso. He wanted to know how to take a book and non-destructively.

Viewer Request: Digitizing Books

Hi!
I've followed various shows on the Twit network for some years now. The Know How-show is my recent favourite. I would like to see you do a show on how to make an e-book, from A to Z. From a physical paper book (or comic) to an e-pub file. I have a Mac, a flatbed scanner and an ebook reader (Icarus Excel).
Best regards,
Tony Paso
Switzerland

Building Something

Iyaz talked to the fantastically talented Patrick Delahanty of TWiT to come up with a concept for a book scanner. We didn't want to use a traditional flatbed scanner because we might be scanning delicate older books. This also allows us to take photos of mixed media like scrapbooks. Iyaz and Patrick each came up with their own design. Iyaz modified a swing arm lamp with a carriage bolt affixed with a cable clip. Patrick came up with Scan-O-Rama™, which used a cardboard box using two Sima LED lights.

Software

We used CamScanner which is available for both iOS> and Android. CamScanner is a very powerful free piece of software that even offers OCR so you can search your text. If you want some super powerful software, try out Booksorber. To convert your new PDF to any other format, you can upload your scans using Dropbox (after you connect Dropbox and Camscanner). From there, use Calibre to convert your book from a PDF to a ePub, Mobi or lots of other formats.

Gallery

Know-It-Alls

Ron wrote in with his idea for a portable book scanner. It's quite the elaborate set up so, we put it into our Google Plus community. Ron's Portable Book Scanner.

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