Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Software To Flatten a Photographed Book?

Posted by kdawson on from the shadows-in-the-gutter dept.

davidy writes "I have photographed some pages of a book for reading on my PDA. This is much faster than scanning and I don't have to carry the heavy books. However, the photographed books are not as nice: curved, skewed, and shadowed, as opposed to the much flatter, cleaner scanned books. I have searched for software that can flatten the pages for better reading on the PDA. So far I have come across Unpaper and Scan Tailor. Unpaper doesn't seem to have a windows GUI, and Scan Tailor doesn't unskew well. I remember reading about Google's technique of converting books to e-books with a camera and a laser overlay. Is there any home user software that can do a similar job without the need for a laser overlay or other sophisticated (and patented) technology?"

10 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Snapter by brusk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Snapter is a bit cumbersome but that's what it does.

    --
    .sig withheld by request
    1. Re:Snapter by DingerX · · Score: 4, Informative

      Okay Cool. I found out what my problem was:

      1. The book must be on a uniform surface.
      2. All the edges of the book must be in the frame.
      3. Only hold the book down from the side.
      4. The photograph must be taken directly over the book.
      5. Use a dSLR for best results.

      Okay, so now try holding a dSLR directly over an open book that you're holding with another hand, from the side, and at a range where the entire book fits in the frame. At that point, you might as well build that book scanning rig.

      In short: FAIL.

  2. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Get a thick, heavy piece of glass and lay it atop the pages to flatten them out before you photograph them. Use ambient light and avoid the flash.

    1. Re:Anonymous Coward by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Also, avoid being seen by the bookstore clerks.

  3. Contact Scan Tailor Author? by syousef · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At version 0.9.6, perhaps Scan Tailor is 96% of what you want and it's F/OSS. If you *politely* contact the author(s) and lay out your concerns perhaps you can get what you need AND help make a project better. Worth a try.

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  4. Re:sooo.... by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

    He can easily get his tiny 10 megapixels camera into the book store, but he would be stopped immediately if he tried to bring his scanner instead.

  5. Use a homemade book scanner. by s4m7 · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you have ~$300 to drop on the project, Make has plans for a nice book scanner: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/04/how-to_book_scanner_on_the_cheap.html It seems to hold the pages at an angle so there's little-to-no distortion on the page.

    --
    This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
  6. Hugin could help by Graemee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://hugin.sourceforge.net/tutorials/scans/en.shtml Here's a tutorial to stitch scans together the slight curve of the page is minimized where the scan joins. Might be what you are looking for.

  7. How about a $300 home-built scanner? by plover · · Score: 5, Informative

    Some guy posted a great instructables on building your own high speed book scanner, purposely designed to rapidly photograph book pages without curves. He even includes a software stream that OCRs the contents and sticks them into PDFs.

    It's been quite popular -- so much so that he's created an online forum at http://www.diybookscanner.org/ dedicated to discussions from DIY book scanners all over the place, where they talk about builds, parts, and software.

    I've been very tempted to build one myself just to avoid carrying heavy books around in my backpack.

    --
    John
  8. Re:I want I want by LihTox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It never hurts to ask; if there were an easy magic software solution to do X, wouldn't you rather find out about it now, instead of after doing X?