Hi. There are many scanners on the market, and your budget and the OCR program you will use to scan books will be significant factors in your decision. Do you already have software like Kurzweil, Openbook, or FineReader? If so, you might want to check the company's website for a list of suggested scanners.
The OpticBook 3600 is a very nice scanner that was built to scan books. It has a special book edge that lets you scan books all the way to their spines, and that gets a very clear scan. It's fast and accurate, and it's comfortable to use. However, it costs more than some other models of scanners, costing around $235 on Amazon.
The Canon CanoScan scanners are fast, light-weight, and cost around $75. They can fit into a laptop bag, and they get good scans. However, because they don't have the book edge on them, you do have to press down on the spine of your book as you scan. That is true of most other scanners as well. I used a Canon LIde 25 for 5 years and was happy with the resulting scans. The LIde 60, 70, and 90 are great models that balance price and performance. Epson makes some solid scanners that are quite accurate, though I'm told they are a little slower.
One type of scanner I would urge you to avoid is the all-in-one scanner/printer/fax machines many stores carry. These machines don't work very well with OCR and are slower than molasses in January. Xerox and Lexmark make the slowest of the slow all-in-ones.
Hope this helps. Monica Willyard G B wrote:
Hello,I am looking to get a new scanner which can scan fast and accurate, and duplex. Are there any suggestions from the good people of bookshare?Thanks so much
