Trying to find a book scanning multifunction

[aguellil]

Hi,

I recently saw that some models (M180nw, M277fdw, M281fdw) have a borderless flatbed scanner, and I was wondering if one of these model was able to scan a book. More precisely, I would like to know the minimum margin a book page should have for the scanner to be able to capture its content, or in other words, at which distance from the border the device is beginning to scan. If someone has tried to scan a book using one of these models, his feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I think that removing the borders of the flatbed scanner and permitting people to make digital backups of their books really is the way to go, and it would be a killer feature if the sensor was close enough to the border for it to be able to capture books with all kinds of margins. I've had a water leak a few years ago which damaged some important books of mine, and since that day I wish I had a device that would allow me to preserve my books with sufficient quality.

In my opinion, a relatively compact and lightweight color laser multifunction with an auto-duplex printer, an optional auto-duplex ADF, and a flatbed with book scanning ability would be the perfect device for a lot of people (homes, small businesses, libraries, universities, etc).

[SunRise_D · Accepted solution]

Hi aguellil,

Welcome to HP Support Forum. 

Those models that you mentioned in your email are indeed targeted users that do a lot of book scanning. Even though the scanner glass is extended to the edge as per what you see visually, there are still limitations for the scanner module to reach the corner. 

to answer your question, scanner can capture images from the book as long as it falls in the white LED bar region (this only applies to scan to PC option). You need to bias the book to the origin of the scan as which is normally at the top left corner of the scan glass. the borderless scan region which is at the bottom right corner is not the scan origin. So try not to target that area for scanning as the borderless area is to help user to get better scan coverage when user press down the book for scanning. 

Hopes my explanation helps...

[aguellil]

It's too bad the point of origin isn't placed at the bottom left corner. I went to a store to check the flatbed scanner of the M281fdw and the distance between the bottom of the glass and the first document marker encountered is about 3.3cm, which is unfortunate since many books have a margin way inferior to that number. So, as you said, it seems that to be able to scan the whole page of a book, it cannot be put at right angle. It has to be placed as usual, at the top left corner, with the risk of having some blur or distortion on the right side of the scan (considering these models use the CIS technology).

There's not a lot of "prosumer" devices which are able to scan books efficiently, and to my knowledge, no multifunction has that functionality. I understand why this could be viewed as a way to facilitate piracy, but when it comes to preservation, there shouldn't be so much constraints (anyone who ever tried to scan a 1000-page book with a regular scanner will know what I'm talking about). In fact, there is such a high demand for a convenient and affordable book scanning device that a whole community was built around it (https://www.diybookscanner.org/).

I remember one standalone scanner and one handheld scanner which were able to perform this task, with a 2mm threshold starting from the book spine, but the manufacturer has patented the technology used in the handheld version so I guess implementing such a feature is not as trivial as it seems. However, I hope one day I'll get the chance to see a multifunction printer with a true book scanning ability.

I've often read some rants about HP, about printers preventing the use of third party toners, or poor customer service, but I don't agree. Personally, I'll never thank you enough for supporting Linux, and I'm impressed by the kind of ingenuity you demonstrate from day to day.

Thanks for all the work you do.

[SunRise_D]

Hi aguellil,

You are right to say that currently there isn't any MFP that really meet your current requirement of book scanning. There are hardware limitations that we need to breakthrough before we can deliver a true borderless scanning to the end user like you. I do value your feedback on this and I will bring this back to the R&D team for further discussions.

For the link that you provided regarding the book scanner, the mechanism of the whole system is mainly depends on the camera. There will be image distortion depending on the angle and the focal length of the camera. Besides, we have to take into account the distance that the camera needs to capture the full image clearly. Applying this concept to MFP might not be a good idea as the overall dimension of the printer will increase drastically. I believe every customer would love to have a product which is slim, compact, attractive and useful. Applying this concept at this point of time might not be the best solution to address your concerns.

Scanning technology has been evolving throughout the years and I believe we will get to your requirement maybe in the next couple of months or years. But at the meantime maybe you can make use of your mobile phone, use the phone camera as your scanner to scan books and corrected the images using the existing scanning apps available in the market to help you with your current task.

Stay tune for the upcoming products from HP and Thank you once again for supporting HP products.

[aguellil]

Actually, the link I provided earlier was just to show that there is a high demand for an efficient book scanning device, and even if the people involved in the community have done a great job at designing fast and affordable solutions, i don't believe there is one which would be convenient (i.e. with minimal post-processing) and compact enough to fit in a small space.

I wasn't inclined to publish links related to another company but eventually decided to do it for the sake of information. The product pages of the two devices I was refering to in my precedent post are accessible at the following links :

- for the standalone flatbed scanner : https://www.avision.com/motion.asp?siteid=100407&lgid=2&menuid=10075&prodid=121298&cat=9

- for the handheld scanner : https://www.avision.com/motion.asp?siteid=100407&lgid=2&menuid=10075&prodid=121349&cat=9

As you can see, implementing a compact book scanning technology is feasible and has been done before, just not in a MFP, and I think it would be an interesting approach for the products to come.