Digitization of books. How to do it?

In the world, a whole generation of advanced equipment has emerged that helps achieve a high goal - it is easy to share knowledge and preserve the achievements of previous generations in the form of electronic books. In this article, we will analyze the main types of technology for the digitization of books.

A flatbed scanner is one of the cheapest types of book scanner that is used for well-preserved editions. From household scanners, which many of us have at home, they differ in that they have a much higher scanning speed and resolution. In addition, some models of tablets, such as the Avision scanner, are also equipped with a special "cut", which prevents the appearance of "blackout", which appears on the scan copy of the book. The maximum size of the book is A3.

Planetary called those scanners, in which the scanning element is located at the top. Such devices digitize rare and valuable publications in a non-contact way. Such equipment is equipped with a bracket, which allows you to align the desired thickness of the book, so as not to damage the spine and gluing. Planetary scanners are considered a good choice for libraries that have rich funds of old printed books. Only 1 person is required to work with this equipment. The scanning process is simple and similar to reading a book - the operator scrolls through the pages of the book, and the upper scanning element "copies" the spread. All further operations (cutting the spread, aligning the pages horizontally, color correction) can be performed using the software built into the scanner or another specialist directly behind the computer.

There are several main differences between planetary scanners:

• Lighting (built-in led lighting or flash.) Scanning with cold lighting technology prevents the heating of the primary source, which adversely affects the paper structure.No both infrared and ultraviolet lighting is available.
• Type of scanning element (digital camera or scan head).
• Staple (horizontal or V-shaped).
• Way of turning pages (manually, automatically).
• Presence of a press glass (for alignment of a surface of pages).

Digitization with "classical" planetary scanners for industrial volumes is represented by the line Book2net of German manufacturer Microbox and products of Belgian specialists of Zeutchel company.

Planetary scanners of general use. When you first see the Zeta model of the world-wide Zeutchel scanner manufacturer, the first thought that arises is that the developers were inspired by Apple products. Such a scanner can also become a decoration for any library and an additional attraction. Such models in the world are used in reading rooms of archives, museums, libraries. In addition to the design, they are easy to use - everyone can independently scan and save the image on a flash drive. A multi-touch panel gives you the opportunity to see the result immediately.

Often it is these "custom" models that have built-in software that automatically processes images-in particular, it removes the fingers (which the user holds the publication because the scanner does not have a pressure glass), aligns the image, and cuts the page into two separate pages.

Photo scanners. All models based on digital cameras are equipped with a V-shaped bracket. In this way, two cameras simultaneously take photos of the left and right pages of the spread. However, in order to get a properly illuminated picture, you need to closely monitor the light to avoid "glare", that is, in fact, to equip a full-fledged photo studio. By the way, the Atiz equipment is supplied with a special cover for protection against light.

In addition, the V-shaped bracket is often used to scan books with incomplete opening angle. Most often, this happens with publications that have been subjected to poor-quality restoration (when books are stitched / glued together and when opening by 180 degrees you can damage the publication).

There is an opinion that such a photo scanner is economically more profitable. True, the cost of such a scanner depends primarily on the model of the cameras used, which means that their cost can fluctuate.

In the network you can see a lot of manuals for creating photo scanners at home. The approximate cost of building such a complex will be up to $ 300 (excluding the cost of the camera).

Robot scanners. "Popular", more likely to cause general admiration, but often impractical for industrial scanning, are robot scanners. Technically, they resemble a photo scanner, however, the pages are paged according to the vacuum principle (in other words, it's actually a vacuum cleaner that lifts a page with a stream of air). There is one more patented technology of turning pages - Bionic Finger, which resembles in the likeness of the index finger of a person and can turn pages of the book.
It is dangerous to use such scanners for valuable publications - because of the thickness of the paper, because the paper can be damaged, the pages can be ripped. It also happens that the pages are stuck together, so you have to be careful about the missing pages. Manufacturers of such models note that for the simultaneous operation of several such scanners, only one person is needed who will monitor the process.

However, as scan operators say, who had the opportunity to work with such equipment, a lot of time is wasted on missing pages and "rehabilitation" of damaged publications.

From the field of fiction or the future that is approaching

Not so long ago in the media there was information about the appearance of a scanning system of books, which allows you to get a scan copy of 250 pages per minute.

Japanese developers managed to achieve this maximum speed by using algorithms to restore a flat image from video page turning. True, the problem of using such a system for thick books and having a complicated cross-linking remains unsolved.

People retain the knowledge of generations to share with their children and carry through the ages. Information on all the art and not only books you will find on this site.