[Coco] i managed to acquire a hp 6300c scanner with adf

[Frank Swygert]

That's a good scanner! I have it's dinosaur predecessor but it works great. SCSI so it's pretty fast, and the ADF works good. If it was duplex capable it would be perfect! Scanning double sided material is a pain, but I've figured out how to do it reasonably well. 

I use a scan-to-PDF package called Terascan (http://www.icoya.com/produkt/eforms/terascan). The evaluation version is fully functional, but puts a "water mark" across the page. It doesn't interfere with reading the page, but can be annoying. I forget how much it cost to register, but it was reasonable (under $50... I'm thinking in the $25-$35 range...) and it's very easy to use. No conversions or anything -- just start the program and tell it to start scanning! 

You will also need some PDF editing tools. I found PDFill PDF Tools (http://www.pdfill.com/pdf_tools_free.html). These are free for personal use with no watermarks. You can't alter the file itself, but can manipulate the files, including merging several files into one and re-ordering the pages. 

I scan all of one side of about 10 pages into a file, flip them over, and continue scanning the back side into the same file (20 pages total). I then re-order the pages so they are in numerical order rather than odd then even pages. I continue this until finished. It's a bit tedious for a large publication or a large number of smaller publications, but works rather well. 

I once had access to a duplex scanner at work. Boss said I could come in after hours and scan some material in as long as I deleted my files immediately and used my own CDs to burn the files. Took me over 24 hours to scan in a large old car parts book -- thin pages too! Thin about scanning in a large city two volume phone book... 3000 pages or so? It was about 4" thick! It would have taken three times as long to do on a single sided scanner even with an ADF. I'm considering getting a duplex scanner now that there are a few on the used market under $100. 

---------------
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:30:57 -0000
From: "stinger30au" <stinger30au at yahoo.com.au>

got it for the price of shipping only!! yippie

when it gets here i can start cutting the spines of my magazine
collection and turning out more pdf files



-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)