# Best way to digitize manuals?



## ProudKerman (Dec 4, 2015)

Hey Guys 

I have a bunch of manuals I've been wanting to scan to pdf for awhile now. 
I have a handheld scanner but it seams to cut off the edges of the pages.
What's the best way to scan these manuals should I just try and use a normal scanner like one attached to a printer, I'm just worried closing the lid will damage the spine of the manuals?

Any help would be great.

Cheers


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## Micdrow (Dec 5, 2015)

ProudKerman said:


> Hey Guys
> 
> I have a bunch of manuals I've been wanting to scan to pdf for awhile now.
> I have a handheld scanner but it seams to cut off the edges of the pages.
> ...



I know your pain, I have scanned a few, Using a flat bed scanner seems to be the easiest way. Depending on your scanner you may be able to leave the lid open so you don't apply as much pressure to the spine. One good thing is that once done, you don't have to flip through book and worry about pages falling out as you know have a pdf copy. Best I have come up with so far. Maybe some one has more 

All the best Paul


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## Pinin (Aug 1, 2016)

If you have a smartphone with a good enough camera it is probably easier and doe not damage the book, of course you don't get the paper sheets to be straight plan like in a scan but for the proposes might be enough. Another pair of hands helping change pages might mean you can do a document much much faster also. Page turn, photo, page turn , photo... 

Good illumination preferably daylight.


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## Reegor (Apr 23, 2017)

There is now numerous software for iOS iPhones, and I presume for Android. Some of them are quite smart, such as automatically snapping the picture once they see a full page. They also assemble the pages into a PDF file.
A few of them include OCR, but not surprisingly it is weaker than full Mac or Windows OCR
Amazon also sells a $20 and a $60 "holder" for cell phones. It immobilizes the phone, while you put the sheet underneath.
Here are some programs I use on my iPad.
Genius Scan
JotNot Pro
ImageToText
Scanner Pro
Scannable
SharpScan
Scanbot
Snap2PDF
Scanbot
As you can see, there are so many that it's baffling. All of them are $5 or less. So I just bought a bunch - now i have trouble remembering which works best.


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