5e books and scanning

[GunnarGreybeard]

OK, I have to ask. I see a lot of people scan their books to use the parser but how do people prep for the scan? Scanning books especially hardbacks, IMO, while they are still bound is a big headache as I find its almost possible to get them to lay "flat" enough for a clean scan. Does anyone pull them a part so that they can scan the pages easier?

I really need to get them into my copy of FG 5e ruleset at some point so I can eventually DM a game or two and I'm planning to get a full set once the last book is out but would rather not have to cut them up.

Thoughts . . . .

[Xorn]

First point of order that I think needs reminding from time to time: You really do not need library modules to enjoy 5E... at all.

But, this is about scanning, so here's my take:

When I scanned in HotDQ, I used an HP 3000 that my girlfriend dug out of a dumpster, then took it apart and removed a bunch of paperclips and a pencil that were stuck in it. It has a one-page flatbed scanner, that took about 1 minute per page to scan in 300 dpi (minimum for OCRing). Plus, I couldn't take the lid off, so I had to scan the right side pages upside down. I scanned them with NAPS2, rotated the even pages 180 degress and kicked out a PDF. Then I OCR'd it with PDFXchange Viewer and it worked, but it really sucked. 90 minutes for that book.

When I did the PHB (& MM + RoT) I used the MFP I have access to at work. It will complete an 11x17 scan (2 page spread) at about 5 second per 2 pages, including turning the pages. I had no issues lying the book flat enough, at all. So that was amazing.

The only thing I use a lot is my NPCs, and my Spells. The rest of the stuff... meh it's okay. Equipment is nice to have, but the PHB Basic Rules pdf has all that already.

[tahl_liadon]

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if you have an ipad or iphone (may be other brand device as well), there are free apps that take a pic of a page, use ocr and coverts to text.

from there, you can figure out a way to streamline saving it to a folder on your desktop.

[GunnarGreybeard]

First point of order that I think needs reminding from time to time: You really do not need library modules to enjoy 5E... at all.
Understood, guess I'm just spoiled from the RMC Ruleset that's all and now I'm kind of OCD on having the data directly in FG. :)

I also have a flatbed scanner where I'll need to hold open the lid while scanning so will be flipping the book as well. Was mainly curious if that's how most others did you or did the through on of those fancy need auto-feed page scanners out there nowadays. Just seems like at $50 book (or $30 on Amazon) ripping them apart for scanning seemed like a bad idea if flipping and scanning would be sufficient. Thanks for the inpout.

[GunnarGreybeard]

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if you have an ipad or iphone (may be other brand device as well), there are free apps that take a pic of a page, use ocr and coverts to text.
Interesting. I think I need to look into that, if not for FG, for some of my old, out of print wargames where having the rules in pdf or word format would be useful when traveling.

[Xorn]

HOLY CRAP. I grabbed CamScan and it's AMAZING.

I just tried it out at work today--took out my PHB and click-click-click-click-click, Save. Bam, 5 page PDF. It even did a solid job on the OCR (though I'd rather use a program on the PC). The PDF was like 7MB for 5 pages, but that's fine--because I want hi-res for the OCR--I'll optimize the PDF to make it smaller on my computer!