# Tell me about book scanners

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-book-scanners/844908>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 15, 2019, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-book-scanners/844908 "2019-12-15T21:05:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-book-scanners/844908/21 "2019-12-22T18:40:25Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> editing the text … it’s a whole other ballgame. replacing an element as simple as a comma with a semi-colon could produce hideous results.

Like random and incorrect application of ellipsises throughout the document?

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-book-scanners/844908/22 "2019-12-23T14:20:41Z")

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> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Like random and incorrect application of ellipsises throughout the document?

Ellipses (note spelling) … get used to them.

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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-book-scanners/844908/23 "2019-12-23T14:36:03Z")

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re copyright: I have a fair number of documents where I, or a friend, or an entity I am acting as an agent for (like my employer) owns the copyright, but we only have a hard-copy available. I am interested in this discussion for some very legal purposes.

> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> I really wouldn’t put my trust in a scanner that doesn’t involve the page being flat. I haven’t actually used the other kind, but I’m highly skeptical that their software can adequately correct for curvature and different lighting near the spine.

There’s been a lot of research into that. Most of the high-end small cameras create “raw” files that are extensively distorted, and they have built-in software to clean that up. I sometimes follow photography review sites. Once upon a time they used to publish images showing how distorted the true image produced by the lens was in various shooting circumstances. The someone sold a small superzoom type camera with a grossly distorted RAW file, but beautiful clear jpgs. And the company gave Adobe the software to clean up their RAW files as it was sucked up into Photoshop.

No one worries about that any more. I realize that the distortion caused by a fixed lens is more regular than the distortion caused by how you happen to have bent the paper, but I bet that that’s a solved problem, too, unless some part of the letters is actually out-of-sight.

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