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Portable Scanner Solutions for Research?

Posted by Cliff on from the I-am-now-officially-a-Mac-head dept.

Fished asks: "Lately, I'm finding that I need to do a lot of research in Libraries -- remember those? I'm tired of feeding dimes to the copiers, and would like to buy some kind of portable scanner to go with my Powerbook. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find one that will work. Back in the eighties, this were as common as dirt: they were small, four inch wide scanners that you could run over the page. Also, while I've found three portable scanners for PC's (from Antec and Pentax) even if I could somehow get them to work with Mac OS X, they are sheet-fed, which is useless for scanning pages out of books. Does anyone still make the old-fashioned Hand Scanners, and do they make them for Macs?"

5 of 421 comments (clear)

  1. Use a digital camera. by scott1853 · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Seriously. My GF has used ours to take pictures of the monitor when 98 locked up while she was writing letters.

    A 2MP should probably work just fine, and if you have a laptop with you, just upload them, erase the card and grab another x pages.

    1. Re:Use a digital camera. by CreepyNinja · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Damn straight, just cut out the middle-man.

      It is interesting to see that scanner prices have dropped with better and better digicams going on the market. It's portable, you have less resolution lost, and it's faster thanks to firewire.

  2. Lightweight Flatbeds by SJS · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Why not go with a lightweight flatbed scanner? It'll fit in a backback, and many of them are powered from the USB/fireware/whatever connection as well.

    If you put the scanner at the edge of a table or desk, you can scan pages of books quickly and easily with less distortion than you'd get from a hand-scanner. This may help make up for the slightly less convenient form-factor.

    Try the discount/clearance table at your local Office Depot / Staples / Office Supply store. I always see "clearance" scanner there.

    I've not actually tried this with my TiBook, so YMMV.

    --
    Pick One: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~stremler/sigs/sigs.html (Note - disable Javascript first!)
  3. Re:Use a digital camera - i second this by Splork · · Score: 5, Interesting

    yes, i've done this as well. 1600x1200 is way more than enough for a page of text. I haven't tried running the image through OCR software, but given that canon has twain "scanner" drivers for their cameras i'll bet it would be easy.

    For glossy paper and to avoid annoying the others around you it is best to not use the flash. if you're in a low light situation, get a small tripod and a book stand.

    For a very good affordable 2mp camera today i recommend the canon powershot A40; search on my simon for good prices. Any 2mp camera will probably work for your needs; but why buy a crappy one?

  4. Wafer-Thin Flatbed Scanner by Egotistical+Rant · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some of the thin Canon models (n656U, n1220U, LiDE 20, etc.) are overall about the same size as a PowerBook, and they draw their power from the USB port; no need for a wall wart. No OSX drivers for the earlier models though...poke around Canon's site for details on what's compatible.

    Scanning is slow though...I have to agree with others suggesting just using a digital camera of sufficient resolution.