DIY Book Digitization?

[Lodestar]

I have some photobooks and some comic strip books (newspaper strips) I think I would like to eventually have available on my computer (without tearing up the binding and book).

I've done some basic research on my own looking into it but the sites and forums I have come across tend to focus on smaller dimension novels that are almost all text with maybe some basic illustrations. What I'm looking for is a method or cost-friendly item that will provide flat images of a reasonable quality without destroying the book.

Anyone with any experience or suggestions?

I have a printer-scanner but it's too small. I believe I might still have an old flatbed scanner and an old digital camera.

 

[jjjjeczalik]

I'm not sure that it's possible to do without destroying the book. In order to get a proper scan, the page being scanned must lay FLAT on the scanner. RicX scanned several million (and by "million" I mean thousand) books and digitized them, and did so by disassembling the book.

Not even being funny, I have purchased multiple copies of a book for this very purpose more than once : One copy to cherish and another copy to scan.

 

[desioner]

Impossible, if you want to avoid all together any damage. The best you can do without cutting the pages out is to press it hard and basically destroy the binding.
jjj brings up a good point. another option is to but the digital equivalent of the book saving yourself the time and work involved in scanning, cropping, adjusting the images… unless you're into that kind of thing.
Just like RicX I too manually cut out the pages to scan, this by far gives the best results. As for any loose strips that doesn't seem to be an issue but the photo books…

 

[Lodestar]

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately digital equivalents aren't available for the majority of these books I'm looking at digitizing. I guess a longterm project for me might be getting my hands on second copies of my favorites and living with that.

 

[CoolKevin]

what is also possible, depending on the quality of the camera, is to photograph them
first try with any mag that has no value, or even try with junk mail as an experiment, that way at least you tried another option

 

[desioner]

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately digital equivalents aren't available for the majority of these books I'm looking at digitizing. I guess a longterm project for me might be getting my hands on second copies of my favorites and living with that.

A final option could be me. But I see you're both trying to save money and your books. I can only help with saving your books. My services are not cheap... however the quality is unmatched. If only by Ric but he's long since retired. I wish he hadn't though. There are numerous examples of my work in the idol photo torrents.

 

[Lodestar]

A final option could be me. But I see you're both trying to save money and your books. I can only help with saving your books. My services are not cheap... however the quality is unmatched. If only by Ric but he's long since retired. I wish he hadn't though. There are numerous examples of my work in the idol photo torrents.

Yeah it's labor intensive to go through a book, no doubt. I'm a bit of a penny pincher right now because I'm between jobs (hopefully have one lined up to start in a few weeks) so this is going to be a longterm thing I'll plan out when I feel a bit more secure. I think ultimately I might try and go it alone because most of the stuff I'm looking at isn't from Japan but thanks for the offer.

I'm assuming you offer for bluray & dvd too? Do you have a FAQ page or anything or is it all done through PMs? I think that's something I might be interested in.