Hi all, I know there's already an OpticBook t

slortar · 01-06-2006, 05:04 PM

Hi all,

I know there's already an OpticBook thread sort of going -- but I have a somewhat more basic question. I'm wondering if any other students out there can suggest whether an actual OpticBook is worth the premium in cost over a regular flatbed scanner?

I'm in graduate school and have lots of books to read in addition to course packets (which I intend to feed through a high-speed MFD/MFP copier).

I'm hoping that the Tablet will really make my reading/annotating process more efficient -- and the paperless idea of taking notes on the actual material is very attractive. I'm wondering what the real world experience/consensus is on scanning in books, and if it's worth it to get the specialized book scanner (Opticbook).

Thanks for your input!

rburdock · 01-06-2006, 07:14 PM

hi Slortar - In my opinion (and experience) yes it is. The 'one touch' buttons when combined with the BookPilot software makes it a worthwhile purchase on its own as the scanning process is hugely simplified and much more practical than anything else I've used. As for the scans themselves ...well for the most part the 'SEE Technology' helps to give a good scan. However it can stuggle with smaller paperbacks and you need to manipulate the book in order to reduce spine shadow. For larger titles (i.e. the more standard size text book and above) there is zero spine shadow.

Although the scanning of each page is reasonably fast (this of course varies accordingto size of page and resolution) you are limited (if using the scanner as it is intended to be used) to only being able to scan a single page at a time which is slow but as you use it more you move yourself in to auto mode and the process goes quite fast..well I think it does anyway.

Best of luck with making a decision. keep on going through the opticbook threads on here and if you haven't been there already have a look at the scanner section of the StudentTabletPC Forum - http://www.studenttabletpc.com/forum...forum.php?id=2 and Tracy's excellent review of the scanner - http://www.studenttabletpc.com/2005/..._scanning.html

Hope that helps
Love & Peace
Robert

slortar · 01-07-2006, 06:28 AM

Thanks very much! I perused the studenttabletpc forums -- I was intrigued (and somewhat mortified) at the idea of having Kinko's slice off the binding and scanning in textbooks through a feeder. The opticbook seems to be the only option (other than prosecution) for borrowed/library books, however!

chaimberbell · 01-07-2006, 08:08 AM

Yeah. Actually, I cut the binding off the books I don't care about because it makes for easier scanning with the OpticBook, but the option to leave the binding on for the nice books (like my $178, 300 page engineering book. I think the binding's golden threads with diamond embroidery) is almost required to have all my books digital.

I like to keep a lot of my books, so there's no worry about resale values after demolition, but I have many specialty books (ones that are hard to find because petroleum engineering isn't exactly popular) that there's no way I'd cut the binding off.

I've tried one of those cheaper all-in-one scanners with the printer and it was horrible. If you don't have a fast and easy scanner like the OpticBook, I really doubt you'd get all your pages scanned and still be sane. I would buy the OpticBook for the scan speed and BookPilot software before I bought it for it's special book-friendly edge, but all are things to consider.

(thanks for the compliment, robert ^_^)

slortar · 01-07-2006, 12:15 PM

Hi thanks for the advice Robert and Tracy! For $178 I hope that textbook comes with a sonar!

I did catch the replies on StudentTabletPC cautioning against remaining in fair use -- as a pack rat, I keep all my textbooks. (Thanks very much for the StudentTabletPC site, BTW!!!) It's certainly food for thought on reference/library materials.

It sounds from what everyone's posted that the OpticBook is definitely the way to go for items that need to remain bound. I think I might try this semester out with some items scanned in and some in their "native" state. It's a piece of brilliance to cut the bindings off of books and I think I will try that + a high-speed copier/scanner first!

01-07-2006, 04:02 PM

Hi,

Scanning can take some time but the one touch controls on the scanner means you can watch a DVD
or something while scanning the book. I dont know the exact rules re: photocopying but you can
photocopy pages from the library so maybe you could scan borrowed books as well.

For me, it was economical as a semesters books might have cost about $400 or so (physics grad school)
and having my books, references etc on the tablet will make classes a lot easier as well.

rburdock · 01-07-2006, 11:00 PM

Good Day All,

@slortar - Glad I could be of some little help. I've always been brought up to treat books as sacrosanct and couldn't even bring myself to annotate a single page in a printed book (that's one of the great benefits of having an electronic version. One can annotate to their heart's content without any feeling of guilt..hehehe although I'm still compelled to keep a clean master non-annotated electronic version as well) so the thought of replicating Kinko's 'murder through dismemberment' :D equally horrifies me. I know it works for a lot of people, and good for them, but I really couldn't bring myself to cause any harm to a book whatsoever.

@chaimberbell - No problem thanks for complimenting my compliment..<scratches head in confusion>..but it is well deserved, your Opticbook review is a great one.

I'm still coming to terms with the cover price of that engineering book. I thought some of the compulsory books I require are approaching 'rip-off' status but that book surely takes the prize (must be down to the book's superior intellectual content that only you eggheaded petroluemgineers (hey a new word!!) can comprehend :D)

On a side note I had to edit my above post to correct the spelling of your name. I have this cumpulsion about putting an 'ey' on the end of it. I wouldn't mind but my sister-in-law is called Tracy as well...doh!! Anyway sorry about that.

@PVJ - This scanning of books can be such a grey area can't it? I know there are a myriad of discussions on this right now so I'm not going to start another one. What I will say though is that I'm not without any doubt that when I scan a borrowed book I am bending the rules to the point of breaking (however I see nothing wrong whatsoever with taking an electronic copy of a book I already own) but in many ways what I am doing can be deemed as another, albeit decedant, form of photocopying. I am also doing the other students on my course a favour by not hogging the book title for too long and it is quickly back on the shelves for the next person to borrow.

One thing I will make clear though is as soon as a semester ends all of my scanned books are deleted (unless the following semester requires their use). So hopefully I'm not bending the law book too much.

Anyway I've droned on for long enough (no surprise there then) so will close
Love & Peace
Robert

moyn · 01-11-2006, 02:31 AM

I bought the Optibook a couple of weeks ago and I have been very pleased. I already had a nice combo scanner (Canon MP730), but you really need something like the SEE technology to deal with most pages. A few books had almost no margin to work with, and they have been problems, but overall the success has been good. The auto page rotation software is a huge plus.

While the software that came with mine (I didn't get the "plus") including Presto did build an image only PDF as advertised, and it could be marked up with PDF Annotator. However, I'm using the Acrobat v7 "tryout" version and really having Acrobat seems to be a plus. It does a great job (of course) building the PDF files, but on top of that the OCR function work great, making a compact, searchable PDF file. And, I'm finding the commenting features to be nice (it doesn't support ink, but using the tablet input panel is so easy it doesn't matter). PDF Annotator puts its comments in a layer which, at first blush, doesn't seem as integrated with the document as Acrobat's comment function. Yeah, even with the student discount, Acrobat is a fortune.

BTW: does anyone know if the standard version of Acrobat will do the OCR for a searchable doc, or is that only in the professional version? I called Adobe and they said I should use the Pro version, which is no surprise :)

And, for the record, my scanning is solely for my personal use, to go paperless.

Bhaltair · 01-12-2006, 01:06 AM

Can you get the "auto" page rotation and the buttons to work with optic book plus? I have one, but the only way I've gotten the OCR capability is from ABBYY or Acrobat.
I'd love to get autorotation and the buttons to work. Is there a way to turn off this pesky preview that is Always on?