What I've Learned

Last weekend, I built a book scanner using a digital camera. In 20 minutes, I scanned a 200-page book so I could have the digital copy on my iPod Touch and not have to tote the actual book around.

Before telling you how I did it – it's so easy, you could do it, too – let's talk copyright. If I own a physical copy of a book and I make a digital copy of it for my own use, not for distribution, lawyers in expensive suits may still clamor that I'm violating copyright. Really? Don't get me started.

Copyright is a touchy subject, but there are plenty of uses for a book scanner – uses that won't turn you into a hunted criminal. Scanning an old, family journal, for example. Or a book that is out of copyright.

A store-bought flat bed scanner forces you to flatten the book against the glass, stressing the spine. The advantage of the book scanner I made is that it doesn't endanger the book.

The process consists of taking a picture of each page with a digital camera than using a program to suck all those pictures into a single PDF file that can be loaded on a digital reading device, such as a Kindle or a Nook or an iPod.

This sounds like a long, tedious process, but it's not.

Here's the idea. You create a shallow v-shaped structure to cradle the book. You set up a camera on a tripod at one end and aim it at an open page of the book. To get a good shot, you take a piece of glass and lay it gently against the open page to help hold it flat.

To scan the book, you snap a picture of the first page, lift the glass, flip the page, reposition the glass, snap a picture, and so on. It takes just seconds to snap and turn.

Some people set up two cameras, one at either end, and take a picture of two pages at once. I, with my one camera, shot all the odd pages, then turned the book around and shot all the even pages.

Getting the photos into the right sequence is surprisingly easy. A small, free computer program called RenameAll will rename the first half of the pictures 1a, 2a, 3a, and so on. It renames the second half of them 1b, 2b, 3b, and so on. The result is that the pages end up in the correct order when dumping them into a PDF.

It's very simple to do. It took five minutes for it renumber all my photos and another two minutes for me to get them all into a PDF.

People have built book scanning cradles from plexigless, from steel, from wood, and from plastic. I built mine from a cardboard box.

I took a medium sized box and taped it closed. Using a sharp blade, I cut the box diagonally, so that I ended up with two wedge-shaped pieces.

I put the two wedge shapes on the table, taped them down so they wouldn't move, then laid the book in the v-shaped cradle this created.

Digital cameras need good light, so I set up a table lamp and aimed it at the book. I shifted it around until the reflection of the lamp in my piece of glass couldn't be seen by the camera.

I got the glass out of a flatbed scanner I bought at a thrift shop for a buck. Some people have used glass from a picture frame, taping one edge so not to get cut. Others have taken a step up and ordered a sheet of Gorilla Glass, the fancy, non-scratch stuff that's used for touch screens.

This type of scanner would be excellent for historical societies that want to digitalize their books, documents, and photos quickly and safely.

If you want more info and to see how others have made and used their devices, go to diybookscanner.org or search for "DIY [which stands for do it yourself] book scanning" on the Internet.