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Scanners
How to create your
own e-Book
Jessica is auniversity studentwho
has anhour andahalf commute to
and fromher campus everyday.
She likes to spend this time
studying. Insteadof luggingheavy
lecturebooks aroundwithher, she
createsher owne-Books for reading
onamobiledevice.
Jasonworks in international sales
and spends a lot of time flying to
overseas customers and international
exhibitions.Tomake time passmore
quickly, he likes to read. Booksweigh
a lot and take up valuable space inhis
luggage, sohe now digitises the ones
hewants to take and stores themon
his eBook reader or tablet.
Today,more andmore people are
creating e-Books as an alternative
to carrying heavy books. Digitising
your own books is useful if youwant
to travel light, just need to take one
chapterwith youor if you can’t find
an existing electronic version in an
e-Bookmarketplace.
Aswell as being convenient, DIY
e-books are versatile, especially if
readon tablet computers that provide
more interactivity than dedicated
e-Book readers, including the ability to
highlight text and addnoteswithout
marking the original book.
Creatingyour owne-Books isnot
difficult.All youneed todo is follow
these simple steps:
Step1: Finda scannerwitha zero
margindesign
Most scanners have amargin around the
glass,whichmeans thatwhen youwant
to scan a book youhave to place it on
top and press downon the spine tomake
pages lie flat.This causes damage to the
book’s binding and produces bad scan
results,with shadows and distortedwords
near the spine.
A book scanner that doesn’t have a
margin, like the PlustekOpticBook 4800,
lets you scan right to the edge of the
page. By placing a bound book on the
edge of the scanner glass (see photo),
you can scan right into the gutter,
without distortionor damage to the
book’s spine.
Step2:DownloadeBookScan
scanning software
The next step is to download
dedicated book scanning software.
Plustek recommends free eBookScan
scanning software forWindows,which
automatically rotates pages to retain
the original page layout and lets you set
custommargins tomaintain the printed
book’s appearance. Scanned pages are
processedwithOCR and turned into
searchable PDF files.
eBookScan comeswith a number of
advanced features for true ease of use,
including:
Scanners canbeused formore than just electronicfilingand
scan-to-email.Here, Plustekexplainshow tomakeelectronic versions
of your favouritebooks for readingona tablet or smartphone.
Digitising your
own books is
useful if you
want to travel
light, just
need to take
one chapter
with you or if
you can’t find
an existing
electronic
version in
an e-Book
marketplace
n
Instant Preview:
After scanning a
page, you can immediately review it
andmake changes if anything looks
wrong;
n
Drag-and-drop toadjust page
order:
If there is an error during the
scanning process or a page needs to
be re-scanned, you can re-scan and
drag and drop to rearrange the page
order;
n
Save twofiles at once:
Uniquely, eBookScan lets you save a
scan in two different file formats,
e.g. JPG and searchable PDF, as part
of a single process.
Step3:Convertfiles to thee-Book
ePub format
The next step is to turn searchable
PDF files into ePubfiles, an e-Book
publishing standard proposed by the
International Digital Publishing Forum
(IDPF).On the internet, youwill find
many free programs that create ePub
files from PDF files in just a few simple
steps, including PDFMate PDFConverter
Professional,whichhas restrictions for
converting PDF toWordfiles, but not for
creating ePubfiles.
After launching PDFMate PDF
Converter Professional, click onAdd
PDF in themainwindow and select the
PDF file you created. Click onAdvanced
Settings and adjust the EPUB settings.
Then click onConvert and you’re done.
Three easy steps and your e-Book
appears in front of you, hot off the press.
Step4: read thee-Book
ePubfiles can be readon virtually any
smartphone, tablet computer ormobile
device.WithWindows devices, use an
e-Pub supportingweb browser like
Firefox toopen and read your newly
created e-Book file.To read it on an
Apple/Android device send the e-Book
to a personal e-mail account, likeGmail,
and thenopen itwith the iBook reader
on your iOS device or the PlayBooks
appon anAndroid device.
