if I do OCR I could also just search the title of the chapter I need to read or something right? How do I do bookmarks? Once I scan a textbooks how do the pages stay organized and what not?
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Going from Paper to iPad: How to Digitize Stuff
- Thread starter palpatine
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if I do OCR I could also just search the title of the chapter I need to read or something right? How do I do bookmarks? Once I scan a textbooks how do the pages stay organized and what not?
These are really specific questions that some time with the software and hardware will kind of answer for themselves I think. You can also find a lot of information on the Internet. But, brief answers would be:
1. Yes, you could just search for the title of the chapter you want to read.
2. Bookmarks require you to press a button and identify the page as one you want to bookmark. This can be done on the iPad with apps like GoodReader, or in OSX with apps like Adobe Acrobat Professional.
3. Pages appear in the order you scanned them, so they stay organized that way.
Here is an example of what something looks like scanned, and how that looks as text after Google's spiders get done with it. Not recommended as a method for personal information, but it is an innovative way to do it for free!
http://www.labnol.org/software/convert-scanned-pdf-images-to-text-with-google-ocr/5158/
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
What a fantastic thread!
I have recently gone back to the ipad, after i sold my last ipad 2 - silly really
- however, since i was constantly based at home, the ipad didn't really compete with my MBP 2011 17" for speed, productivity and habit i suppose.
Now that i have recommenced work, i found it really hard to do anything productive on my iphone; reading long books was also quite painful.
With exams looming, and having long days with 3 hour commutes, the ipad has been my saving grace.
I have scanned all my core books to good-reader - synced my dropbox folder for my active docs
I use adobe pro to create revision notes from textbooks and lectures at home then read them on the train to work!
I also invested in the Zaggamate + keyboard- since i find typing on the touchpad whilst reading a little tricky and somewhat overwhelming - this combo is brilliant! The keyboard works fantastic for me. I also find it more accurate when editing docs: w will touch in the general direction where i need to add text for e.g., then use the keyboard arrows to get to the exact location. This combo has effectively replaced the need for a notebook on the go!
Since i travel around the country a fair bit, i can carry my ipad/zaggmate combo with ease - really do not find the MBP 17" very portable, especially if using public transport in inner-city London!
My final step would be to purchase a camera-connection kit so that i can add a further 32GB SDXC card to watch movies on whilst i am away from home. Hopefully, the voltage hack will mean that i could possible one day use a portable HDD/thumb drive before apple crippled this feature with iOS 4.3
I have recently gone back to the ipad, after i sold my last ipad 2 - silly really
- however, since i was constantly based at home, the ipad didn't really compete with my MBP 2011 17" for speed, productivity and habit i suppose.Now that i have recommenced work, i found it really hard to do anything productive on my iphone; reading long books was also quite painful.
With exams looming, and having long days with 3 hour commutes, the ipad has been my saving grace.
I have scanned all my core books to good-reader - synced my dropbox folder for my active docs
I use adobe pro to create revision notes from textbooks and lectures at home then read them on the train to work!
I also invested in the Zaggamate + keyboard- since i find typing on the touchpad whilst reading a little tricky and somewhat overwhelming - this combo is brilliant! The keyboard works fantastic for me. I also find it more accurate when editing docs: w will touch in the general direction where i need to add text for e.g., then use the keyboard arrows to get to the exact location. This combo has effectively replaced the need for a notebook on the go!
Since i travel around the country a fair bit, i can carry my ipad/zaggmate combo with ease - really do not find the MBP 17" very portable, especially if using public transport in inner-city London!
My final step would be to purchase a camera-connection kit so that i can add a further 32GB SDXC card to watch movies on whilst i am away from home. Hopefully, the voltage hack will mean that i could possible one day use a portable HDD/thumb drive before apple crippled this feature with iOS 4.3
What a fantastic thread!
I have recently gone back to the ipad, after i sold my last ipad 2 - silly really
Now that i have recommenced work, i found it really hard to do anything productive on my iphone; reading long books was also quite painful.
With exams looming, and having long days with 3 hour commutes, the ipad has been my saving grace.
I have scanned all my core books to good-reader - synced my dropbox folder for my active docs
I use adobe pro to create revision notes from textbooks and lectures at home then read them on the train to work!
I also invested in the Zaggamate + keyboard- since i find typing on the touchpad whilst reading a little tricky and somewhat overwhelming - this combo is brilliant! The keyboard works fantastic for me. I also find it more accurate when editing docs: w will touch in the general direction where i need to add text for e.g., then use the keyboard arrows to get to the exact location. This combo has effectively replaced the need for a notebook on the go!
Since i travel around the country a fair bit, i can carry my ipad/zaggmate combo with ease - really do not find the MBP 17" very portable, especially if using public transport in inner-city London!
My final step would be to purchase a camera-connection kit so that i can add a further 32GB SDXC card to watch movies on whilst i am away from home. Hopefully, the voltage hack will mean that i could possible one day use a portable HDD/thumb drive before apple crippled this feature with iOS 4.3
I'm glad you've found the thread useful. I think a lot of people will find it useful to hear what you have to say about the camera connection kit as well.
When I travel for relatively short trips (days or weeks) I just take my iPad and leave the MBP at home. I use an iPad + Apple keyboard + Incase Origami Workstation + iPod combination to get stuff done. Often I read on the iPad and sync the keyboard to the iPod in order to write notes (Evernote). I have found reading on the iPad to be really enjoyable, and with the keyboard, taking notes is a breeze (especially if you learn all of the commands for moving around the screen smoothly).
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
Thanks - u're set-up intrigues me!
Do you read on the ipad, then draw and handwrite notes on the ipod-touch?
Do you have a stylus?
Ideally, i would love to use a stylus and an app that has character recognition, so i could add these do good-reader. Sir google has identified several apps and stylus pens - however, i am yet to find a pair that has universal application and received good reviews? Any anecdotes from others would be much appreciated!
RIP to old fashion paper + pen
Thanks - u're set-up intrigues me!
Do you read on the ipad, then draw and handwrite notes on the ipod-touch?
Do you have a stylus?
Ideally, i would love to use a stylus and an app that has character recognition, so i could add these do good-reader. Sir google has identified several apps and stylus pens - however, i am yet to find a pair that has universal application and received good reviews? Any anecdotes from others would be much appreciated!
RIP to old fashion paper + pen
LOL. I don't think pen and paper is dead yet. It is probably one of the most advanced technologies we have ever created. Just think about how flexible, enduring, and ubiquitous it has become. Before pen and paper (not so long ago), writing was a lot more difficult. Well, I have been very disappointed with the stylus situation so far. I still do my notetaking on good old pen and paper, and then I scan it into PDF with ScanSnap. When I take notes with the iPod, I do it using the keyboard.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
lol.. maybe i got a bit carried away..
damn steve jobs and his brainwashing.. lol
Now i can not imagine being without my ipad.. i use this the most, followed by mac, then iphone
damn steve jobs and his brainwashing.. lol
Now i can not imagine being without my ipad.. i use this the most, followed by mac, then iphone
lol.. maybe i got a bit carried away..
damn steve jobs and his brainwashing.. lol
Now i can not imagine being without my ipad.. i use this the most, followed by mac, then iphone
actually, a lot of people seem to have moved on to stylus and ipad solutions. you'll surely be able to find some of them by searching around the forums. however, as much as i like the idea, in my experience, the stylus is a huge step down in terms of usability, and i have no intention of going there just yet.
I'm in law school and I digitized all my books.
I have the ScanSnap 1500M, and scan pages on 300dpi with auto color detection. I OCR with the packaged adobe (not the best but works very well for printed material).
I love it, saves me about 30lbs in a bag! not to mention goodreader allows you to search the newly ocr'd book to follow class a lot easier than flipping through pages! Highlighting is also very useful (ever mis-highlighted anything, or needed more colors?). What puts it together for me is the switcheasy canvas case I use it with. The portable keyboard I use (logitech) fits perfectly within the clasp and looks like a little laptop, while keeping the stand feature.
I did have to cut out all the pages (around 1500 per casebook), and my file size varies between 450mb (all b/w) to 750mb (some color). Goodreader handles them fine. I do a weekly back up on my iMac.
I have the ScanSnap 1500M, and scan pages on 300dpi with auto color detection. I OCR with the packaged adobe (not the best but works very well for printed material).
I love it, saves me about 30lbs in a bag! not to mention goodreader allows you to search the newly ocr'd book to follow class a lot easier than flipping through pages! Highlighting is also very useful (ever mis-highlighted anything, or needed more colors?). What puts it together for me is the switcheasy canvas case I use it with. The portable keyboard I use (logitech) fits perfectly within the clasp and looks like a little laptop, while keeping the stand feature.
I did have to cut out all the pages (around 1500 per casebook), and my file size varies between 450mb (all b/w) to 750mb (some color). Goodreader handles them fine. I do a weekly back up on my iMac.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)
it sounds like a great system. i forgot to say that a lot of files cab be optomized with no noticeable loss in quality, and that black and white scans are smaller, so file sizes for me can vary a lot.
it sounds like a great system. i forgot to say that a lot of files cab be optomized with no noticeable loss in quality, and that black and white scans are smaller, so file sizes for me can vary a lot.
it all depends on what you call a textbook (a 300 page survey history or a 1300 page anthology), how you scan it (200-600 dpi/black and white or color), and whether you optimize it (sometimes significant reductions). one textbook used in a course i taught, for example, comes in at 52.7 mb. another one 28.6 mb. in my case, most of the books are black and white, 600 dpi, optimized.
It depends on your usage. In my case, I don't play games and music goes on my iPod, so the 16GB iPad holds a lot of stuff. I don't know how many I have in there at the moment, but easily a couple of hundred books and articles. The 16GB is plenty for me.
Of course, it requires file transfers every once in a while, but that would be the case with the 64GB as well, because all of my stuff barely fits in a 1TB external. I can't expect my iPad to hold everything. Maybe the iPad 3 will
I went from a vehicle trunk and passenger seat filled with hundreds of pages of manuals and go-bys to my Ipad 2 riding shot gun. So far, despite the initial time investment, its saves significant time and effort on a daily basis.
Scanner. I use an old HP all in one. It will auto feed about 20 or thirty pages at a time. The biggest problem I have is that due to a driver problem it wont auto correlate front and back pages. This means I have to do it by hand after the documents are scanned. Its a pain but worth it.
Drop Box. Drop Box installed on my Ipad 2 and Drop Box installed on my Mac.
GoodReader. I tried the alternatives and GoodReader works the best. Its handles PDFs the best, but also does a fair job with all the other document types.
Adobe Acrobat Pro. You can live without but in the end you really really want the OCR that it provides. The OCR is key. With OCR you can navigate the biggest or smallest document by use of the Find function. Saves countless hours.
Here is the workflow. I get a manuel in paper form. I scan it in using the document feeder. If its a front and back scan, I have to create two separate documents and then merge them while correlating using Adobe Acrobat Pro. Its faster then you would think it might be. If I can find a PDF version, all the better. I then process the document with Adobe Acrobat PRO OCR. The newly created and processed document is then placed in the Drop Box folder on my desktop. The Drop Box folder has one file that syncs to a folder in GoodReader on my Ipad. That folder is divided into numerous folders such as Manuals, Templates, Maps etc. Anything that is placed into the folder on the Mac shows up in the synced GoodReader folder on the Ipad and vice versa. If I get something by email on the Ipad I can open it in GoodReader and save it. It will then appear in the DropBox folder back on the Mac. If it needs OCR I can process it with Adobe.
I can notate and hight light documents on the Ipad with using GoodReader. This has become invaluable for studying some of the manuals. I can email out the revised notated copies right from the Ipad and view the updated version form the Mac post sync.
Its all very seamless once its set up. Everyone I show the setup to is shocked at the amount of material I able to have with me.
I bout the Ipad 2 as a replacement for my Ipad 1 which I handed off to my wife and kids. I did not anticipate using for work. Now its once of the most important things I take with me each day.
If you have a lot of documents that you want access to I recommend you try what Im doing or finds a variation of it that works for you.
Scanner. I use an old HP all in one. It will auto feed about 20 or thirty pages at a time. The biggest problem I have is that due to a driver problem it wont auto correlate front and back pages. This means I have to do it by hand after the documents are scanned. Its a pain but worth it.
Drop Box. Drop Box installed on my Ipad 2 and Drop Box installed on my Mac.
GoodReader. I tried the alternatives and GoodReader works the best. Its handles PDFs the best, but also does a fair job with all the other document types.
Adobe Acrobat Pro. You can live without but in the end you really really want the OCR that it provides. The OCR is key. With OCR you can navigate the biggest or smallest document by use of the Find function. Saves countless hours.
Here is the workflow. I get a manuel in paper form. I scan it in using the document feeder. If its a front and back scan, I have to create two separate documents and then merge them while correlating using Adobe Acrobat Pro. Its faster then you would think it might be. If I can find a PDF version, all the better. I then process the document with Adobe Acrobat PRO OCR. The newly created and processed document is then placed in the Drop Box folder on my desktop. The Drop Box folder has one file that syncs to a folder in GoodReader on my Ipad. That folder is divided into numerous folders such as Manuals, Templates, Maps etc. Anything that is placed into the folder on the Mac shows up in the synced GoodReader folder on the Ipad and vice versa. If I get something by email on the Ipad I can open it in GoodReader and save it. It will then appear in the DropBox folder back on the Mac. If it needs OCR I can process it with Adobe.
I can notate and hight light documents on the Ipad with using GoodReader. This has become invaluable for studying some of the manuals. I can email out the revised notated copies right from the Ipad and view the updated version form the Mac post sync.
Its all very seamless once its set up. Everyone I show the setup to is shocked at the amount of material I able to have with me.
I bout the Ipad 2 as a replacement for my Ipad 1 which I handed off to my wife and kids. I did not anticipate using for work. Now its once of the most important things I take with me each day.
If you have a lot of documents that you want access to I recommend you try what Im doing or finds a variation of it that works for you.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
Just thought i would add that i also use airsharing HD to mount my Ipad to PC - thus allowing me to even print from my ipad to my parents windowze machine + 10 yr old usb1 laser printer lol... This app is great to collect a bunch of docs that you need to connect to other devices!
I also have printpdf - had to really hunt for this - but i love this app - it lets you pretty much save any file to pdf - which can then be imported to goodreader/airsharing
I also have printpdf - had to really hunt for this - but i love this app - it lets you pretty much save any file to pdf - which can then be imported to goodreader/airsharing
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sounds perfect! in particular, i agree about adobe acrobat pro. for me, that was a key piece of software that made it all so much easier to accomplish.
Soft bound manuals. Multi page maps. Single sheet documents. Standard Operating Procedures. General Orders. Down loaded PDFs.
I'm a cop and I work patrol on the night shift. With my set up I can consult a city map, look up the most recent update on how to document a specific type of crime, and refer to any number of policy and procedure documents all with out moving from the front seat of my car. I can also send the info or document via email. It takes a fraction of the time it used to.
Some things are a bear to work through if you haven't done it in a while. A DUI or some types of Economic crimes for example. Or trying to find the obscure state statue that I haven't used in a while.
I've always wondered how do police officers access the web and everything when they are patrolling? Is it 3g or some sort of mobile wifi?
We have a vehicle mounted laptop with 3G. Calls are sent by radio and to the terminal. It has a separate program for report writing and do all the laptop basics. That being said, as far a reviewing documents the iPad beats it.
I'm currently in the Nursing program, and the textbooks are crazy huge too! They're ranging from 800 to 1400 pages per textbook.
And yes, after doing a bit of research online, I'm considering about getting the ScanSnap S1500M, but I was just wondering if this is the good time to get that scanner. I mean, would they be updating that particular model anytime soon? I noticed this model has been around for a while now, and yet it keeps getting good reviews all around the net. And because at $400, it's not a cheap scanner, so I just want to make sure I get the latest-up-to-date version of it.
When did you get yours? Is there any difference between the current S1500M with the older S1500M?
And, with about 1000 pages range, would it really take up to around 500MB per textbook? That will fill up quickly huh....
I don't have that Scansnap model, but I have used ones that looked similar. Mine is a little bit smaller (S300), but I think they pretty much work the same, with the exception of speed and amount of paper that can be fed at once. Obviously, the bigger the machine, the faster it is going to go. In my opinion, this kind of hardware ages well, and will be quite useful for years to come. I have used some at university that were clearly quite dated, but ran just great. They don't tend to update these very often, and when they do, the changes aren't terribly big, so I think that even if they updated the next day, you wouldn't miss out on much.
As for the size of the file generated, it depends on a lot of factors. A color, 600 dpi, A4 sized textbook is going to probably end up being several gigabytes, while a black and white, 300 dpi, A4 sized textbook will be comparatively small with only a few hundred megabytes at most. The 50 mb and 20 mb files I mentioned above were several hundred pages at A4 size I believe.
Correct me if I'm wrong but these would be the steps to digitizing a textbook.
- Obtain the texbook preferably without a binding
- scan it
- open everything in Acrobat pro
- run OCR
- import to iPad
- Bingo
Sounds good. Don't forget that the scanning can be done extremely fast with a digital camera without harming the book at all (I feel like the results are not quite as good, but I have done it for several books).
Great Thanks. I think I would prefer scanning rather taking photographs it seems faster. I purchased my books for the fall semester today. Have a look.
I'd love to get all this on an iPad. I'll do a test run the first semester and see how easy it is to scan all my books and organize them.
what software is available to run OCR for PDF's? Preferably free but it has to reliable.
