Choose the right scanning device

Professional CZUR book scanners

• Professional book page scanners are the best choice if you need to scan ancient books, rare books, or for high-precision publishing purposes, if you need to scan ancient or rare books. For example, the Fujitsu FI-7900 book to pdf scanner, which has a high resolution, is capable of reaching 600dpi and even higher. This allows you to capture text and image details on book pages clearly, and the scanning speed is relatively fast, maintaining high efficiency even in color mode. At the same time, it can handle books of different paper materials very well, whether it is rice paper as thin as a cicada's wings or thicker hardcover book paper.
• Professional scanners often also come with auto-feed and duplex scanning. The automatic paper feed function makes it easy to scan a large number of pages, reducing the tedious manual operation. Duplex scanning greatly improves scanning efficiency, and for a book of several hundred pages, this feature saves a lot of time.

High-resolution camera equipment (camera or mobile phone)

• When a professional scanner is not available, high-resolution camera equipment can also be used as an alternative. If you are just for personal archiving or simple reading purposes, it is more convenient to use a high-pixel phone or camera to take pictures. Nowadays, many smartphones can reach a very high level of camera pixels, such as some models of Apple's iPhone series and Huawei's Mate series, which have more than 50 million pixels.
• When taking photos, pay attention to even lighting. Shoot in a place with plenty of natural light and avoid shadows. Also, use a tripod or other stabilizing device to secure your phone or camera to prevent blurry images during shooting.

Preparation before the scan

Book pre-processing

• Make sure the book pages are flat. If the book is a little bent or wrinkled, you can place it under a weight and press it for a while to keep the pages as flat as possible. For hardcover books, you may need to be careful to open the book to avoid damaging the spine because the binding is hard.
• Clean the surface of the book from dust and impurities to prevent them from affecting the quality of the scan or damaging the scanning equipment during the scanning process.

Software Installation & Setup (for Scanners)

• Depending on the scanner model you are using, install the appropriate drivers and scanning software. After the installation is complete, open the software for basic settings. For example, to set the scanning resolution, which is generally used for general reading and archival scanning, 300dpi is sufficient; If it is for high-quality requirements such as printing, it can be set to 600dpi or higher.
• You can also set the color mode of the scan, with options such as black and white, grayscale, and color. If the book is mostly textual content, the black and white mode can make the file size smaller; If there are things like color illustrations in the book, you need to select the color mode.

Precautions during the scanning process

Operating the scanner (if used)

• Carefully place the book pages on the scanning table of the scanner, making sure that the pages completely cover the scanning area and that the edges are aligned. Follow the prompts of the scanner software to initiate the scan. Avoid moving books or scanners during the scanning process to prevent blurry or distorted images.
• If it's a duplex scan, pay attention to how the scanner is set up for duplex scanning. Some scanners need to scan one side first, then manually flip the book and scan the other side; And some advanced scanners can automatically switch between duplex scanning.

Take a photo scan (if using a camera device.)

• For each photo taken, check the clarity and completeness of the photo. Make sure the text is not reflective, shadow-overlayed, and that everything is within range. If the photo taken is not satisfactory, it should be retaken in time.
• In order to facilitate the subsequent arrangement, it is best to shoot the book in the order of the page number, and you can simply number the photos during the shooting, such as naming them according to the format of "book title - page number".

File processing after scanning

Image optimization (for images after scanning or taking photos)

• Use image processing software, such as Adobe Photoshop, to optimize the scanned image. Parameters such as brightness, contrast, and color balance can be adjusted to make text clearer and more readable, and images more vivid. If there are some minor blemishes during the scanning process, such as black spots, creases, etc., you can deal with them through the software's repair tool.
• For photo-scanned documents, you can also crop them to remove the excess edges and make the page more regular. At the same time, the tilt that may occur during the shooting process is corrected so that the text is horizontal.

File format conversion and storage

• Convert the scanned file into a suitable format according to the subsequent purpose of use. If it's for easy reading and sharing, the PDF format is a great option that preserves the book's formatting and works well on different devices. If you also need to edit the text content, you can convert the scanned document into an editable text format such as DOCX using optical character recognition (OCR) software.
• When storing files, choose the appropriate storage device and storage path. You can use an external hard disk to store a large number of scanned book files, and the files should be classified and sorted according to the title, author or category, etc., so as to facilitate subsequent search and use.