For efficiency and convenience almost all of us prefer a soft copy over a hard bound book. If you are looking for a scanner to scan books your search might end here. Our team researched top 45 models for good 70 hours to get to the list of best book scanners. Fujitsu Scan Snap SV600 is the best pick and the second best is PKB World Shape Scanner.
Our Top Choice
Contents
Product
Editor's Pick
Runner Up
Budget Pick
Name
Fujitsu Scan Snap SV600
PKB World ^ Shape Scanner
IPEVO USB Book Scanner
Best For
Best Scanner For Large Books And Prints
Best Scanner For Book Pages
Best Budget Friendly Book Scanner
Pros
Versatile, Can scan up to A3, Can scan a book and several other documents, Great speed, Auto Page detection, Automated page correction
Perfect for books, Generates an ultra clear and clean image, Scanned pages can be edited
Excellent OCR quality, Can translate words in to four different languages
Flexible versatile features, Can capture, video record, and project, Good resolution
Good for pages up to A4 size, Compatible with laptop, PC, Mac, Tablets, etc.
Cons
Software plays up when scanning a book with more than hundred pages.
Expensive
OCR is not very get, Scanned images have shadow marks and finger tips marks
Perfect for books, Generates an ultra clear and clean image, Scanned pages can be edited
Excellent OCR quality, Can translate words in to four different languages
Flexible versatile features, Can capture, video record, and project, Good resolution
Good for pages up to A4 size, Compatible with laptop, PC, Mac, Tablets, etc.
Cons
OCR is not very get, Scanned images have shadow marks and finger tips marks
Easily scan newspapers, magazines, documents or books directly without cutting or damaging them
Multi Document Detection function enables you to scan multiple business cards, photos, newspaper clippings or other...
Auto Book Correction that automatically flattens and corrects the curve distortion
This is one of the top model that has totally redefined the work of a professional book document scanner. It has everything from high quality CCD optics and advanced LED illumination to change every document in to a soft copy. It is the best book scanner for books, journals, and other papers. While testing we found that it can scan efficiently without folding or damaging the delicate papers.
The book document scanner can also scan multi varying size documents at once in just 3 sec. What we like more about this product is its page turning detection feature. With this, it scans automatically when you turn a page. So, when scanning a book you don’t have to hit the scan button each time and thereby increase the overall scanning speed. Furthermore, the most common problem while scanning books if the curve at book’s spine but not with this. It comes with a flattening software to make the pages appear flattened.
When scanning the other common problem you face are the scanned finger tips but its avoid this issues with its advanced software. Overall, it’s a versatile book scanner to generate clear, clean, smooth images of your document or any soft/hard bound book.
Things We Like
Versatile
Can scan up to A3
Can scan books and several other documents
Fast scanning speed
Auto Page detection when scanning a book
Automated page correction to remove curves, finger prints, etc.
Things We Don't Like
Software plays up when scanning a book with more than hundred pages.
Bottom Line
Fujitsu scansnap sv600 is a versatile overhead professional book document scanner especially meant to scan books of large to small size with in minutes. A good addition to maintain a record of the old and new documents.
2. PKB World Shape Scanner – Best Scanner For Book Pages
Quick Scan(1 second per page) of the left & right page by just one click
Clean Scan with no shadow even in thick book
This is one of the most innovative book scanner of this year. It uses the innovative technology to give you a mirror image of your hard bound book. It comes in our list because of its amazing features, technology, and fast speed.
The most satisfying part of this scanner is its shape. It has an A shape to make sure the a clear image is generated of the book page. While testing we found that it is most effective to remove the shadow, the curved ends, and other scanning marks. What it give is a crystal clear image that resembles exactly like the book page without a single black mark. Moving on to its speed that is yet more amazing, in one second it scans from left to right. We were also pleased to see its high quality OCR. It amazingly extract sentences and also give practical UIs to check for the right scanning page, missing page, annotation, rotation, etc.
In addition to all this, the dedicated book scanner can scan anything that is up to A4 size. You can also edit the scanned pages which is again a plus point and a user-friendly feature. You can search a word on the scanned page and can even translate it to some other English, German, Japanese, and Chinese.
Things We Like
Perfect for books
Can scan documents of size up to A4
Fast scanning speed
Generates an ultra clear and clean image
Scanned pages can be edited
Excellent OCR quality
Can translate words in to four different languages
Things We Don't Like
Expensive
Bottom Line
A high end book scanner to get the an ultra clean soft copy of the book pages. Not only this, you can even edit the scanned pages which is again a plus point
Patented Flattening Curved Book Page Technology: ET16 Plus applies CZUR’s latest technology to flatten the 3D curved...
16MP Sony Camera, Easy and Fast: Embedded 16MP Sony Camera and with the 1.5 S/P scanning speed, ET16 Plus can easily...
Capable of scanning multiple items: Books & Binder Documents, Business Cards and Vouchers and even Physical Objects.
CZUR ET16 is yet another luxurious overhead book scanner in the market. It is known for its quality scans and its dual lam feature. And for the same reason it took a place in our list.
The device uses a patented Flattening Curve Technology that shoots three laser line to harmlessly the contours of open book/document and thereby generating a flattened page image. To add on to its efficiency, it has dual side lamps to throw significant amount of light to ensure excellent scans. We tested and found the scanned pages are free from surface glare, interference, or other black spots. You can use this to scan laminated documents, certificates, glossy magazines, or other large size books. Furthermore, the scanning speed is excellent, thanks to its 32-bit MIPS CPU. It takes minutes to scan an entire book.
Having the best OCR is a common trait among quality book scanners but this one goes beyond it. Its OCR along with ABBYY technology can recognize characters of 187 languages and covert them in to editable major formats like Word, PDF, TIFF effortlessly. Lastly, you can scan up to a maximum A3 size. So, no matter how small or large your document is this professional book document scanner will do the job.
Things We Like
Versatile
Can scan up to A3
Scanned pages can be editted
Come with supplementary lighting
Great OCR to recognize different languages
Easy to use
Things We Don't Like
Requires frequent cleaning
Bottom Line
Czur ET16 is a sleek design fast, powerful overhead document scanner for up to A3 size. We recommend it for its auto-correction ability, OCR, and fast scanning speed.
4. Plustek OS1180 Scanner – Best Book Scanner For Mac
✔WE SCAN SIZES - A3 11.69""x 17" Large Format Scanning
✔NO MORE WAITING - LED Light Source, Save Energy, No Warm Up
✔HASSLE-FREE OPERATION - Pre Set Function One-Touch Button for Your Quick Use.
Plustek is another best flatbed scanner for books and other documents. It has a tabloid size to make your scanning much easier then you can ever imagine. We recommend this book document scanner for its compact size and ability to scan different large to small scale formats.
We tested this device and found it specifically good for large prints, books, historical maps, historical documents, scrapbooks, albums, artworks, paintings, posters, etc. It can generate images of documents up to 12” x 17” in size. It uses it LED light source to create a clear quality high resolution scan. Be rest assured it won’t heat up when used for a prolonged time. Nevertheless, we suggest you to give it a 10 minutes breaks after book scanning for an hour for better results and long life of the device.
Moving on to its software, it has decent accuracy OCR, with ABBYY fine reader for character recognization, and a Doc action for sharing the files from one device to another. The glitch here is that you can edit the scanned documents in spite of the fact that you get the scans in the most popular formats like PDF, DOC, TIFF etc.
Things We Like
Great for art work, paintings
Compatible with Mac, and other Windows operating systems
Scan quality is good
Compact size
Things We Don't Like
Book scanning speed is less
Bottom Line
A good scanner compatible with all the latest device to manage documents, process image, and create a PDF.
5. IPEVO USB Book Scanner – Best Budget Friendly Book Scanner
5.0 Megapixel camera for exceptional high-definition images, A variety of high-definition and standard-definition...
High-resolution formats and a 6X zoom to capture even the smallest text and other fine details
Multi-jointed stand and swiveling head for effortless, versatile capture
This one is the best portable scanner in the market. It comes in our list because of its portability, affordable pricing, and good resolution.
IPEVO looks like a desk lamp that you can carry from your home to office or any other place when required. The device has a 8MP camera to give a high resolution for generating a clear quality scan. You can effectively scan up to a page size of 13.4 x 10 inch. What is unique about this document scanner is that it offers a feature of live HD video recording. This combo of videos and photo capture is good for any education institutions, offices, or teacher. Moving on to its operation, it works on USB so you just have to connect it to your laptop or PC. The device is compatible both with Mac books, and Window PCs.
Last but not the least, for making out the most of this portable scanner you can also plug it into an LCD projector for showing your students/colleagues your gathered information.
Things We Like
Flexible versatile features
Can capture, video record, and project
Good resolution
Good for pages up to A4 size
Compatible with laptop, PC, Mac, Tablets, etc.
Things We Don't Like
OCR is not very get
Scanned images have shadow marks and finger tips marks
Bottom Line
A fantastic product in an affordable pricing. We like this portable scanner’s verstaile features like video recording, projection, and image capturing.
If you are looking for a portable book scanner your search might end here. Aibecy is a portable document scanner with all the standard features you need for book scanning or any other document.
Aibecy is equipped with CMOS image sensors. With these sensors, you get a very high resolution making the scan quality much clearer and sharper. To further increase its efficiency it has LED lights to give you a clear image even in the dark environment. We tested it for documents of different sizes and shapes like laminated pages, glossy magazines, passports, IDs, books, etc. and it did a good job every time. The device can scan pages up to A3 size. Everything is scanned it just seconds. Furthermore, after capturing you can optimize the pictures brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc and also combine multiple PDF scanned documents to make an hand e-book kind of thing.
Last but not the least, the unique feature of it is real-time image capturing and projection via a projector. This means you can connect it to your computer and your projector to show the book pages on the screen for a more interactive teaching experience.
Things We Like
Cana capture and project
Can scan up to A3 size papers
Can enahnce the scanned image quality
Portable
Things We Don't Like
You can’t edit the images</li
No auto-detection feature
Bottom Line
In the end, its the best portable book scanner for making the teaching sessions more interactive and engaging.
7. Plustek Optic Slim 2610 – Best Light And Slim Scanner
A flatbed scanner without extra adapter , No warm-up time is needed. Support TWAIN protocol with thousands of image...
With image processing, software can Auto Rotate, Deskew and Crop image. Help user save time and get better picture.
OS2610 scanner can help you work efficiently with 5 one-touch Buttons that enable you to Scan, Copy, E-mail.
If you are looking for a compact slim book scanner then this can be a good option. It is a good option for a crowded desk/workstation because of its sleek design. You can easily store it any drawer as it occupies more of horizontal space.
The device is solely designed to sort out the most serious scanning work especially for thick books. It has user-friendly features like 5 one-touch buttons to scan, copy, OCR, custom set up, or email. All in all it has everything to make a soft copy of a documents and share it at the same time with your team or students. Be rest assured, we check its resolution, it work like a standard scanner that give a moderate quality clear image. Furthermore, the device is compatible with Windows and mac systems to match with the trendiest technology.
In addition to all this, we were also satisfied with its OCR software. It does a goo job to remove errors, removing distortions, and retyping post scan. It is actually a good device if you are someone who deal with lot of PDF book scanning work.
Things We Like
Supports both windows and mac
Lightweight and sleek design
Can scan up to A4 size papers
Can enahnce the scanned image quality and edit
Auto-crop and edit function
Things We Don't Like
Not meant for very high resolutions
OCR software has few glitches
Bottom Line
A slim scanner for scanning A4 size documents. Good for people who have have to scan few pages of the books and are not looking for ultra high resolution images.
Mobile Scanner, especially convenient for sales rep & product marketers, press article, flyers, ads, product competitor...
300/600/1200 dpi scanning resolutions for perfect images results, scanning speed: 1 Sec. For a B&W document/ 2 Sec. For...
Save scans onto the micros card (included), 1. 5" color screen (be safe your scan correctly). scan up to 100 documents...
This is the only quality handheld scanner in the market. It is a good choice for people especially the sales representative, product marketers, press article, flyer, and for product specification. It is not the perfect book scanner but a good device to scan a few book pages or documents or pamphlets on spot.
The device comes with three 300/600/1200 dpi book scanning resolutions for the user-friendly image results. You can use them as per the need. For example, to scan a plain black and white page 300 resolution is good and for glossy colored page 1200 resolution would do a better job. Moving on to its speed, we found it takes good 3 seconds to scan a page, this speed is lesser than other competitor products in the market. The downside of it is that it stores the captured images only in PDF and JPEG format. Furthermore, you can edit the image file on any office document.
Lastly, the device is compatible with smartphone, android, iOS, PC, and laptop via its Wi-Fi connectivity. You just need to contact it your phone via your app to view the scanned copy on your phone. The device has a USB rechargeable battery which means it ha son-spot charging. But the glitch is that the charging time is pretty high. It takes good 2hours to charge fully.
Things We Like
Flexible compatibility to phone, laptop, and PC
Can scan up to A4 size
Rechargeable battery
Three resolution settings
Handheld
Things We Don't Like
Can’t be used to make a e-book
Charging time is long
Bottom Line
A handheld scanner with Wi-fi compatibility to instantly transfer the scanned images on your laptop/wi-fi/PC. We recommend it for scanning cards, single page documents, articles, product specifications, etc.
Buying Guide – Things To Consider When Buying The Book Scanners
Buying the best book scanner sounds can sound like an easy task but it is not. Let’s disclose the truth, with such an huge variety in the market buying the best product that meets different requirements can sure be a daunting experience. Different models have different features and they fit well to different kind of works. For this, its important that you should know about the considerations that these units should have. If you are unsure how to figure it out we have a guide for you. The guide will help you to jot down your requirements and then choose a product that suits your need. Here it is:
1. Type Of Scanner: Flatbed Or Overhead?
All the good models use high resolution cameras and a moving light coming from a powerful LEDs.They are few scanner that just use a one shot camera mounted on a frame for, make sure you don’t buy them. It is because a digital camera is made fro clicking photos and can not replace a scanner.
A flatbed scanner scans a book when you press it flat out on the scanner’s glass plate. This scans the page but not very efficiently you might see the sentences on the inner end going inside(because of the inner middle curve in the book) and you might also find some fingertips mark. Further, there is also a risk of damaging the book’s spine and the results may not be as good as required. They just scan the book from above and the scanning image looks like as if you are reading the book from above. The traditional flatbed scanners are not recommended if you will strictly use them for book scanning. They are preferred for scanning flat documents or other papers. We don’t recommend them for book as the page curve near the book binding cause problem. The edge text is distorted in the scan, thus making the scan difficult to read.
On the contrary to it the overhead book scanners are solely meant for book scanning. They have an overhead lamp, a camera, and an OCR. They tend to recognize each word of the book and thereby take a clear picture of the book page. They also correct the page indentation, format, disregard the finger tips while scanning. Further, in the best ones there is no issue of inner page curves or distortion of the page. You just get a mirror image of the book. So, they are best for scanning books. In this category the best book scanners are Fujitsu Scan Snap SV600, PKB World ^ Shape Scanner, and CZUR ET16 Plus Scanner.
2. Speed
This is another important requisite. It refers to the number of pages the scanner can handle in the shortest possible time. For office purposes and for commercial purposes high speed scanner are the most preferred products. It is because they can handle greater workload to serve all the customers. Even for personal use high speed book scanners are the most preferred book scanners. In a general scenario, it takes 1-5 seconds to scan one page. The top ones take around 1 seconds and the low quality ones might take 4-5 seconds. As per our testing, we tried to include only the ones that take less than 4 seconds to scan a page. The best book scanners that are good for speed is Fujitsu Scan Snap SV600, PKB World Shape Scanner, Plustek OS1180 Scanner, IPEVO USB Book Scanner, and CZUR ET16 Scanner
3. Quality And Image Resolution
This is another important point to consider for getting a clear picture of the page. It might change with technology. A high resolution camera combined with best OCR technology gives an unbeatable performance. The recommended range of resolution is 300dpi for black and white documents and 600-1200 for colored glossy documents. Make sure whichever product you are choosing has a good resolution and clarity.
4. OCR
OCR stands for optical character recognition or optical character reader. With this technology, the handwritten, or typed or printed text are converted to machine-encoded text. It is must feature for best book scanners. This electronic conversion is done to make sure that every word on the paper is scanned accurately. So, for scanning books a good OCR is a must. A few OCRs are of such high quality that they can even identify the words from different languages like English, Japenese, Chinese, and few other major languages. This way they ensure the entire text is scanned exactly the way it is written on the page.
The other advantages of OCR includes editing of the page. You can edit the images coming with OCR technology. This way you have the ease to crop them, add or remove some characters to get a more polished outcome. Moreover, you can even adjust the brightness and sharpness of the image for a user-friendly experience. Lastly, the documents scanned using OCR can be converted in to PDF, Doc, Office, TIFF, or other Microsoft office tools,
5. Software Compatibility
Once the document is scanned it has to go to its required storage area.You might need to copy it to your PC, laptop, or send it as an attachment in email. So, it is important for the scanner to be compatible to a range of software for easy process of sharing and convenience. If your device is not compatible to a range of software then you might face problem in sharing or viewing it on different devices.
6. Type Of Documents
The best book scanner are those ones that can handle different type of documents varying in size, shape, and thickness. Choosing a scanner that can handle multiple type of documents from books to magazines to cards to art works to paintings is always advisable. Your scanner should definitely know how to scan the type of documents used frequently buy you. You can always buy one scanner for document and one for books but that is just a wastage of money and space. We recommend to go for a multipurpose versatile device that can handle multiple documents well. This will not only save money but also time.
7. Price
Price is a personal choice. The market has book scanners that start from $100 and go up to $1000. You should be considerate in choosing a product that suffice your need irrespective of the price it has. The high-end costly ones have some add-on user-friendly features and the moderate ones just do the basic scanning job. Choose one that fits your budget. Our list has only the quality products irrespective of their amount. Our testing and other reviews suggest Fujitsu Scan Snap SV600 is among the best book scanners in buget and the second best is PKB World Shape Scanner and IPEVO USB Book Scanner as the budget pick.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why Should You Scan A Book?
Scanning a 500 page book sound like a lot of work but why do you think you should do it. There are many publication and books that you want to access regularly. Its not in-convenient to carry them daily to your class, library, or to place them on your table. But making them in a digitized form can solve this issue very well as you just have to take your laptop/storage drive to read or refer to them anytime anywhere. Further, it also cuts the cost of buying the book you can ask your friend to buy one book and you buy the other one. Both of you scan it up and share the scanned copy with each other.
A few other advantages of scanned book is that you can read quickly and search for a phrase or word instantly without flipping over hundreds of pages. Lastly, you can also store these books in a PDF format in your smart phone and read while you travel.
2. What Resolution Should I Look For?
For the books and documents, you really don’t have to may much attention to the resolution. A device with 200pi is good to scan plain black and white pages and a device with around 600dpi is considered good for glossy colored pages, magazines, paintings, or posters. A higher pixel gives a more finished clear scan.
3. What Size Of Scanner Do I Need?
Picking the right one relates to the document size you will scan. Most of the good models can scan up to A3 size paper. With this you can even scan the small size postcards, IDs, documents, and even A4 size paper documents. This size sounds to be versatile as it can handle different kind of load pretty easily. With most of the flatbed scanners, the size is a constraint they mostly can scan documents that are up to A4 size. For large size books and prints they don’t fit. Nevertheless, look at your requirement choose which one suits your budget and requirement before purchasing.
4. Do I Need To Buy Any Software?
Most of the new models comes with in built software. These software are capable of doing all the work from scanning to editing to transferring of files. This way you don’t have to pay extra to purchase an addition scan related software. Nevertheless, it also relates to what you plan to scan. If you need features like OCR, photo editing, text indexing, formatting, PDF document search, adjusting the picture brightness and sharing your files then you don’t need and additional software. But if your work demands to do something more than this you might need to buy an additional software.
Final Talk
With an array of choices and models in the market, choosing the best one seem to be mind-boggling. The goal is to save money and get the best book scanner that is versatile in nature and excellent in quality. For this, we recommend you to assess your present and future needs and as well do a proper research to make an informed decision. Our post has an detailed buying guide to help you sort your needs and a list of the most worthy products from the market prefer reading it before choosing any one.
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