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Large-Scale Paper-To-Digital Conversion?

An anonymous reader writes "I've just been asked to digitize several dozen sets of lecture outlines at the university where I work. Basically, professors want to hand me a big (often 100+ page) stack of their handwritten lecture notes (with messy text, equations, and diagrams; sometimes double-sided) and expect me to post a PDF-or-something-similar to their course's web page. However, every desktop scanner I've ever used takes 1-2 minutes of user-attention per page and the resulting files end up Huge, impossible-to-read, or both. All I have at my disposal is my PowerBook, Acrobat, a couple hundred dollars of department funds for a new scanner (this maybe?), and, if I ask nicely, overnight use of the secretary's Win2k box. Any ideas? Sheet-fed scanner recommendations? Better file formats than PDF (or better PDF settings)? Do any of you students have usability advice?"

4 of 459 comments (clear)

  1. Bring down emissions by skidrowe · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Hopefully this will help reduce bad emissions from the production of paper...I've always heard they use some nasty chemicals...

    1. Re:Bring down emissions by jpmkm · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Swing and a miss. Just keep posting that and some day it will be on-topic.

  2. Hello by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    How does this relate to Michael Moore? I'm just a little confused.

    1. Re:Hello by Crusty+Oldman · · Score: -1, Offtopic
      I'm just a little confused.

      So is Michael.