#1:CZUR Shine Ultra Smart Portable Document Scanner, USB Book Scanner with OCR Auto-Flatten & Deskew, Document Camera for Desktop/Laptop, Capture Size A3, Compatible with Windows & Mac OS
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Customer reviews
IT WORKS PRETTY GOOD detailed review
You have to be careful with focusing and keeping the pages still, it won't scan small papers clearly sometimes, and the light does make scanning glossy surfaces a chore... but this thing is perfectly adequate for most use-case-scenarios. If you're scanning things like 30 page comic books or manuals, this will do a phenomenal job... if not a perfect one. This isn't a miracle device. You will have errors before you get good practice. It's not *crystal* clear. But it's not a one-trick-pony either.
I've used this to scan a 500-page massive text book, paperbacks, hardcovers (easier than paperbacks for me), family photos, handwritten notes, and as a top-down webcam for teaching, all to perfectly usable success. For larger documents, if you're willing to sacrifice some resolution, you can boost the device's height on a box and get some black fabric, making the scannable area larger. OCR still works in common use.
And oh yes, something that this device excels in is it's desktop software's OCR function. *Excellent.* Those who use speech-to-text software will be *very pleased* with this device. One can simply copy and paste text right out of one's digitized books on one's computer. You will likely not be disappointed with it's OCR, for sure.
The device comes with everything you need. If your skin-tone doesn't work well with the automatic finger-removal function of the software, the box supplies you with "finger cots" which very accurately allow you to prop the book open with no fear of distracting artifacts. It comes with a foot pedal to scan the pages with, and also automatic scanning in the software which sees when you turn a page all by itself. Very nice packaging as well, very easy to understand. This company, Czur, is known for their excellent packaging.
The speed of the scanning this device can do is actually very impressive. More destructive techniques may be faster, but I've scanned a 300 page novel in 10 minutes. You can do the math there, but that's pretty darn good.
Something you may have noticed with minimal research is that this company makes other scanners that look similar. I can confirm to you that for consumer use, this scanner may have a lower resolution than the (tempting) $600+ scanner that they sell, but this model is more portable, and its resolution is *perfectly* adequate for all common users, I would say.
Do your research. Look at reviews. But if you are in need of a non-destructive book and document scanner that is portable (fits in my small backpack) and will scan pretty darn fast and in good quality, along with the best OCR software I've realistically ever used, and all for personal use, and don't need higher resolution (which most people shouldn't), this device is probably the best you can buy from Czur.
Have a nice one.
Fast, easy to use scanner with great results
Great scanner, here's what I thought about it broken down by different aspects:
-Packaging
Comes in a nice, sturdy box with a handle so you can easily carry it and pack it up in an organized way when you're storing it between scanning sessions.
-Software
The software it comes with is straightforward and easy to use. I really didn't even read the manual, I just installed the software, plugged in the scanner, and figured it out and started scanning in like 5 minutes.
-Functionality
How it works is it comes with a black mat, you put your book/paper on it and select single page mode or book mode. Single page mode scans one object at a time, and it automatically crops the page against the black background; there are some finger tabs for holding pages flat and the scanner software automatically makes them disappear. For book mode, it scans two pages at once, and splits each page into its own separate image. I have attached some example scans from this product, compare it to the setup photo I took with my phone - even though the page isn't level, it automatically flattens the perceived curve from the camera snapshot, so you don't need to fiddle with making the pages flat. The cropping and page flattening is great, it just works. When you're done scanning, you can export all the images as various document types such as word/pdf, or you can leave them as images. Of course, you can choose where to save the base images to help keep organized. My wife also uses this in her classroom as a visual presenter where she can put a page underneath and write on it, and project it in real time on her projector.
-Quality
I have attached photos for black/white mode, color mode, and a final word document export. I should also mention, the export automatically processes the image to identify words and does a great job. I picked a page with tiny text on a 5"x8" book and you can see from my attached images that the camera is good enough even for tiny text, and can accurately translate that into a word document. Note that for some glossy pages, the light can reflect back to the camera and reduce quality, but for matte surfaces and "regular" paper, it performs excellent.
-Speed
It comes with a foot clicker so you can fully use your hands to flip and position pages without slowing down. Flip the page, give the camera a second to focus, press the foot clicker and repeat. As you scan, you can see a preview image and it's pretty apparent if something went wrong, maybe 1 out of 2-300 page flips or so I find I want to do a rescan which is totally fine for me. Depending on how focused I am, I flip a page every 2-4 seconds, on average maybe 15-20 page flips a minute, so that's around 300 pages in 10 minutes! Which I think is super good.
Overall it's straightforward to use, takes good quality scans, exports files well, and scans through books quickly. I am very satisfied with this purchase and recommend this for anyone who wants good, fast scans.
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