What is the fastest and reliable way to scan old paper magazines into digital form? (lemmy.fmhy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by One_Dollar_Payout@lemmy.fmhy.ml to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Hello. I'm not sure if it's related in any way to piracy, but I don't know yet of a better place to ask this question on Lemmy, and people often search for PDF magazines on pirate sites (like those from megathread). I have some old magazines, which I would like to scan - page by page - into digital form (for now for personal use) and merge scanned pages into PDFs for convenient reading. Some of these magazines have hundreds of pages each, so I would like to convert them to digital both fast (preferably a few pages in one minute), reliably (without blurred text and images in some places on each page), and in best quality possible. Do I need a professional scanner (for example in a multifunctional office-grade laser printer)? Could a decent portable scanner do the job just as right? Or is my phone's camera with an appropriate scanner app completely sufficient for that? I would like to read your thoughts about this.

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[-] passepartout@feddit.de 18 points 1 year ago

Some libraries have these to scan books fast. My old university had one to scan really old books (about 1500). I'm sure it could be used on magazines, you just have to find a library that has one AND is willing to let you use it.

[-] PixelPioneer@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

This is the correct answer.

[-] passepartout@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's the conventionally correct answer indeed, but everything that does the job is correct here. Cutting open the bindings and letting it run through a scanner which can pull in the pages also does the job, but the magazines are trash after that. But then again, it could be less labour intensive and easier to automate. Also, you can do it at home with a simple scanner.

I do this sometimes for double printed pages of letters / scripts / my old diary. First i let my scanner pull all sheets on one site, then the other. There is a tool which can sort the pages afterwards accordingly with one click.

[-] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

yeah. that's probably the easiest by far. just cut the bindings and feed them into the ADF of your scanner.

those book scanners are also nice. i scanned a few chapters of books at the university library. but it takes like 10 minutes per 100 pages. you turn the pages manually. and there is a foot switch to trigger the camera above. you need a good podcast while continuously turning pages for half an hour.