Seeking info on eBook document conversion/creation software.

Aviator411 · 04-24-06, 11:11 AM

Do any of you have experience with software which will enable the creation of pda-optimized ebook documents from from scanned book pages? Does software exist which does this well for both the text and graphics on scanned pages?

I am totally new to the concept of ebooks and their creation. I am in the process of acquiring my first ppc, a 51v of course, and would like to be able to scan selected chapters or pages of school textbooks and convert them into ebook documents for use w a pda. I would prefer to do the document scanning and creation on my Mac powerbook since I do not own pc. There seem to be a number of web sites advertising software which claim to do what I want to do but some of them have the appearance of crossing the line of "shady scams". Would enjoy hearing from anyone who is actually using this software successfully. Most of the stickies, reviews, tutorials, etc. seem to deal with how and where to buy ebook documents and how to use the reader software for them.

Thanks for any advice.

Gigi · 04-24-06, 11:18 AM

There are some links in this tutorial that might be helpful:

http://www.aximsite.com/whatcanidowi...mentConverters

I've personally tried the WORD add-in and it works just fine.

PDAAddict · 04-24-06, 01:11 PM

Hello,

If you need to convert scanned pages to a readable PPC document, I would suggest getting a good Scan-OCR application. If you were on Wintel, I would recomment ABBYY Fine reader, which is great. However, in Mac, in am not sure which one to recomend.

What I would tell you is to go and see what Fine Reader does. It should help you find a similar program for OS X.

A good OCR program will let you save your scanned documents in Word or text format. From that point, I would agree with Gigi and get a Word converter. There are many, depending on your format of choice. However, once again, your choice may be more limited, because of OS X. At worst, you can always run a Wintel program in an emulator like Virtual PC.

Aviator411 · 04-24-06, 01:44 PM

Gigi,

Thanks for the reply. I did check out all the links you suggest as well as links within them but I didn't find any answers there. I guess I'll have to contact the publishers of some of the conversion software mentioned in the linked documents.

Are you saying that there is a word accessory that supports ebooks production from scanned pages, including graphic content?

Originally Posted by Gigi

There are some links in this tutorial that might be helpful:

http://www.aximsite.com/whatcanidowi...mentConverters

I've personally tried the WORD add-in and it works just fine.

Aviator411 · 04-24-06, 01:48 PM

PDAA,

Thanks.

The problem is that I want to do more than text OCR. I want to scan pages with graphic content and have it get processed in an integrated way such that the graphic appear in the end document in ledgible fashion. This will require software which is smarter than plain OCR.

I'm not familiar w Fine Reader but I'll try to contact them for advice. I guess those who are publishing software are the logical place to go for this kind of info.

Originally Posted by PDAAddict

Hello,

If you need to convert scanned pages to a readable PPC document, I would suggest getting a good Scan-OCR application. If you were on Wintel, I would recomment ABBYY Fine reader, which is great. However, in Mac, in am not sure which one to recomend.

What I would tell you is to go and see what Fine Reader does. It should help you find a similar program for OS X.

A good OCR program will let you save your scanned documents in Word or text format. From that point, I would agree with Gigi and get a Word converter. There are many, depending on your format of choice. However, once again, your choice may be more limited, because of OS X. At worst, you can always run a Wintel program in an emulator like Virtual PC.

Gigi · 04-24-06, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by Aviator411

Are you saying that there is a word accessory that supports ebooks production from scanned pages, including graphic content?

No, but once you go through OCR, you can use the WORD add-on to turn into an ebook format (LIT). However, you just explained you don't want OCR. The only other alternative I can think of would be to scan, then convert to PDF. I use Primo PDF, which is free, and you can get a PPC version of Adobe here. Be sure to read some of the threads that discuss how to make it work well with the X51v.

PDAAddict · 04-24-06, 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by Aviator411

PDAA,

Thanks.

The problem is that I want to do more than text OCR. I want to scan pages with graphic content and have it get processed in an integrated way such that the graphic appear in the end document in ledgible fashion. This will require software which is smarter than plain OCR.

I'm not familiar w Fine Reader but I'll try to contact them for advice. I guess those who are publishing software are the logical place to go for this kind of info.

Fine Reader does exactly what you want. It does OCR, and keep images and text formatting up to the degree that you want. Don't forget, though that if you need graphics in your ebooks, the choice of format is dramatically restrained.

In my knowledge, only Mobypocket, Microsoft reader, Acrobat and Repligo can handle graphics that way. There is also Tomeraider and iSilo, but those formats are more difficult to create from a scanned document.

Since you did mentioned that you are new to ebooks creation, I must point out that if you try to skip the OCR step, and scan directly graphic pages in a PDF or Repligo document, which can be done easily, you'll end-up with much bigger documents, and I mean MUCH bigger if you want a very legible copy.

04-24-06, 05:45 PM

Aviator411
Abbey Fine Reader is the best OCR software on the market right now.
This is not just my oppinion. The disablities department at the Univ of North Texas also agree. They have test many products and say Abbey is by far the best. They use it to convert student books into text and/or mp3 depending on the disablity.
Problem is it cost $400. I think you can get a free demo. It sounds like you are a student so $400 might be a little high for you. Oh and by the way doing what you want to do is not illegal, as long as you aren't selling the finished product.
You should google on OCR software and see what you fine. Good luck.

johnvarenda · 11-27-09, 07:51 AM

hi....
Can you explain about the TWAIN and OCR.
...........