Daniel Reetz has perfected the art of making a DIY book scanner using a regular Canon digital camera, wood, acrylic, and lots of creativity.
…over three days, and for about $300, he lashed together two lights, two Canon Powershot A590 cameras, a few pieces of acrylic and some chunks of wood to create a book scanner that’s fast enough to scan a 400-page book in about 20 minutes. To use it, he simply loads in a book and presses a button, then turns the page and presses the button again. Each press of the button captures two pages, and when he’s done, software on Reetz’s computer converts the book into a PDF file. The Reetz DIY book scanner isn’t automated–you still need to stand by it to turn the pages. But it’s fast and inexpensive.
There’s a free DIY guide on how to build your own book scanner, download the free PDF E-book here. And Daniel has a good resource on his new website (diybookscanner.org).
Perhaps this would be a great way to get your physical books into PDFs so you can read it on the go, either on your computer or an e-book reader.
