Best way to scan a hardcover bound 600pg manual?

[EyeMWing]

Some douchebag who got canned decided not to leave the company with the original so we could print more if need be, so we need to scan it. If you're having trouble picturing WTF I'm talking about, pretend I'm trying to scan a textbook. And why they decided that a 600pg procedures manual needed to be in hardcover format instead of looseleaf or spiral bound is beyond me, too. But lets start with correcting the first task.

Also, some people in management would prefer if the shiny hardcover-bound copy were not destroyed in the process of duplicating it, so my initial instinct of "ok, give me the papercutter so I can get rid of this stupid binding and use the sheet feed scanner" isn't going to fly, at least initially. (and where "hi, here's a book, make it into a PDF" falls in my job description as a hardware technician, I don't know. But at least it's gonna keep me busy)

 

[SSP]

Aquaman to the rescue!

seriously....

 

[TechnoPro]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Some douchebag who got canned decided not to leave the company with the original so we could print more if need be, so we need to scan it. If you're having trouble picturing WTF I'm talking about, pretend I'm trying to scan a textbook. And why they decided that a 600pg procedures manual needed to be in hardcover format instead of looseleaf or spiral bound is beyond me, too. But lets start with correcting the first task.

Also, some people in management would prefer if the shiny hardcover-bound copy were not destroyed in the process of duplicating it, so my initial instinct of "ok, give me the papercutter so I can get rid of this stupid binding and use the sheet feed scanner" isn't going to fly, at least initially. (and where "hi, here's a book, make it into a PDF" falls in my job description as a hardware technician, I don't know. But at least it's gonna keep me busy)

I worked with a company that shipped books and manuals off to India for transcription. Proved to be cost-effective in a similar situation to yours. But, if it the only procedural manual, it might have to remain in-house. Cutting it would make too much sense...

 

[Aquaman]

Look for a book scanning service.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Baked]

Only way you can get a perfect scan, especially w/ a book that huge where all the text near the spine will be difficult to scan, is to get a 2nd copy, destroy it completely and scan each and single page individually.

 

[Aquaman]

Or buy one of these

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[mchammer]

There is a scanner out there that uses vacuum arms to turn the pages and then snaps each page with a camera. Put it in there and come back in an hour or so and it will have a .PDF file ready for you.

 

[HamSupLo]

get an intern to do it

 

[ArJuN]

And there is also one that involves a bunch of legos, home made of course.

 

[0roo0roo]

hire a day laborer
companies like google have these nice book scanners that dont damage stuff for their digital library projects. stuff probably costs massive amounts of cash though

 

[BoberFett]

n/m

 

[DaWhim]

cut the binding and then rebind it after.

 

[dug777]

Pay some kid to do it.

 

[Kelemvor]

I'd go for the cutting of the binding and haev someone rebind it later as well. Once you have the pages all separated, you can run it through a high speed scanner with a duplexer on it and have the whole things scanned in a few minutes. Probably worth the cost of rebindign it in what you'll save in time.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

you can't restore the original files from backup somewhere???

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
(and where "hi, here's a book, make it into a PDF" falls in my job description as a hardware technician, I don't know. But at least it's gonna keep me busy)

Sorry you were given a nasty job. But your (any just about any other employee) only job description is "do what your bosses say to do". So yes, this is 100% in your job description.

 

[SpunkyJones]

Intern FTW!