Best Book Scanner Review | Top 5 in 2023 | #1 is Automatic

The best book scanner right now is the SV600 Special Book cradle, which is a combination of an overhead Fujitsu SV600 and a specially developed book cradle. Besides that, you can also choose from automatic scanners for books, with standard or Vshaped book cradle, and even semi automatic scanning devices. 

Right now, we think the following devices are the best scanners for books that you can buy:

• Klip Snap Book Support – with the Fujitsu SV600 as a capturing unit
• Czur ET16 – as an alternative to the Sv600 as a capturing unit
• SMA Scan Master 2 – for flat originals and thick originals
• SMA RoboScan V2 – as a turnkey solution that will scan just about any book out there

If you want to do proper book scanning, and efficiently capture all the pages from a book, then you need a professional book scanning devices. A portable scanner, or a commercial book scanner like the Czurt et16 plus, will never provide the results a high end vshaped equipment or a robotic book scanner will deliver. 

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1. 1. The best cheap book scanner
   2. The best automatic book scanner
   3. Best professional book scanner
   4. Best Consumer Book Scanner

Characteristics of the best book scanner in 2020

The best scanning device for books has the following characteristics:

• Captures the pages of a book, periodical, manuscript or any graphic art bound document.
• Does the scanning at high resolution, without damaging the paper and the integrity of the bound book.
• Has a special book cradle and a high-resolution camera. Those are calculated so you can achieve the maximum scan quality.
• The book stays on the book cradle face up and the camera captures each page individually.
• An A2 scanner is probably the optimal size to have on your device.

Why use a special book scanning machine

We will start by looking at a simple situation. You have a 300-page book and you need to scan it. You have the following alternatives: 

1. Send it to a service provider. Overnight-scanning.eu is a good scanning provider and they can digitize a book for you. You can choose another book-scanning company if you want.  We are sure there are enough out there so always ask for examples of the scanned results. They offer the desired file format delivered to your inbox, after scanning.
2. Scan the book on a flatbed scanner or on a multifunctional device. This is also a viable option. The only problem is that you will have a lot of work to do. It will require you to flip the page, turn the book and press scan at least 150 times. This will definitely get you tired if not annoyed.
3. Buy a professional device. This equipment is usually an overhead scanner for books. That means the book stays face up and you only flip the page. There are also automatic book digitization devices  which will flip the pages for you. Diy book scanners can be an interesting too, but they requires a lot of work before you actually start scanning. 

Given what we are talking about in this article, we will consider that point 1 can’t be chosen. Therefore you either have to scan the book on a flatbed or buy a professional book scanner.

Let’s say you constantly need to scan books. You will definitely have to buy a professional machine. It is more efficient, it will save you a lot of time, and you will scan more books in less time. Especially if you buy an automatic one, this will go through the pages much faster.

How does a book scanner work

The simple way in which a scanner for bound documents and books works is the following: 

1. Lay your material on the book cradle with the book and document facing up. . 
2. Open the book and go to the first page
3. Press the scan button and capture the first pages. 
4. The scanning software will take the scan and crop the images through the middle. 
5. When the pages have been separated and you are satisfied with the captured images, turn the page. 
6. If you have flipped the page you can hit the scan button again. 
7. Repeat this process until the entire book has been scanned. 

What you see above is a general description of how such an equipment works. Depending on equipment and manufacturer, there are certain steps that will be different. 

In the case of automatic book scanners, they will automatically flip turn the pages for you, making the entire process more simple. 

Compared to a document scanner, this will not damage the book during scanning, but the pages per minute value will be lower. Still, it will be faster than a flatbed scanner for sure.

At the same time, you need to get the book digitizing machine from a reliable source. Unlike document scanners, you need suppliers with experience in this field.

We have seen devices like the Iriscan Book being advertised as a bookscanner. This is not the case in real life. While they can capture a couple of pages, they don’t have a 300 dpi optical resolution. I think this is a mandatory value for any book scanning work.

Cheap Book Scanner

Usually, cheaper does not automatically mean better. But sometimes, you can adjust cost effective products for specific needs. Book digitization machines are not strangers to this, that is why we think we can show you a really interesting proposition. If you want to know which book scanner price is good, you must reverse engineer the process and analyze which will suit your needs the best. 

You already know the SV600, which is an interesting economical scanner that can also do books. Well, a European book scanning provider has designed a special cradle for this scanner, which turns the device into a semi professional scanner. It’s actually a really interesting product, one which does all the tricks way more expensive scanners do, but at a fraction of the cost. 

The book cradle is fully adjustable, meaning the left and right cradle are independent from each other, and can move up and down easily. You can also move the cradles left and right, so now even thicker books can be scanned. Actually books as thick as 6cm are now to be scanned on this support. And with the integrated flattening glass, you should have a perfect scan every time.

So if you are thinking in terms of cost and low price only, this device is the one to go for. We always recommend analyzing what your specific needs are and check which one of the devices will be the appropriate one for you technically, and then head into the price range.

I won’t go further into details, but you can check our article on the best cheap book scanner in 2022, which will give you all the details about the device.

Specifications of a good digitization equipment for archives

We will look over the characteristics that make a good archive scanner for bound documents. While you probably know some of these aspects, some will surprise you.

• Scanning Resolution – Don’t confuse resolution with quality. Resolution is one of the quality factors. When you look at scans, always consider the optical resolution. For scanning books, 200dpi should be ok for reading the content of the book. Use 300dpi for OCR and electronic archiving. We see 400 and 600dpi only for high-quality images, fine art or reprint.
• Scanning Quality – The quality should be consistent over the entire surface of the page. This means lighting, color and tones. You should see even lightning across the pages and their background. Check for color consistency and also the color accuracy. 
• Scanning Size –  As you know, most books are up to A4 in size when closed. This means that in theory, an A3 book scanner should do. To be on the safe side, always buy a larger scanner, for such books only.  That is why, from our point of view, a book scanner a1 in size, should be the best choice. 
• Productivity – Speed and productivity go hand in hand. Potential speed does not always mean high productivity. While in theory, an automatic scanner for books is faster than a manual one, that is not always the case. Automatic scanners are not recommended for heavily damaged documents. A manual scanner will always be faster in practice, but keep in mind, you need a height adjustable cradle. A book scanner automatic page turner is very nice to have, but always check what this implies. 
• Life expectancy – For a professional book scanning machine, you will be paying a lot of money. The longer the operating life, the cheaper the cost per page will be. Some manufacturers claim that their machines can do in excess of 5 million pages.
• Cost – Digitization devices for books will cost you from hundreds of dollars to over a hundred thousand in some cases. The price varies depending on the size of the machine, quality, productivity, and speed. For example, a scanner for A1 books in size will cost way much then a model that only scans up to A2 or A3. 

Why use an overhead scanner for books

The only viable option to scan lots of books is to use an overhead scanner. You might ask yourself why this is.

Professional book scanners were developed by companies that previously built microfilm cameras. Before scanning, microfilming was the solution to preserve documents for longer periods and also reduce storage space.

Initially, the microfilm camera was nothing more than a standard film camera. As the years went by, manufacturers integrated these cameras into complex systems. They quickly understood that it had to be user-friendly in order to microfilm a lot of pages.

The systems they built had the following characteristics:

• A microfilming table where the book or document was laying face up so it could ease the process.
• Very good lighting system to provide the user with better filming quality.
• A glass plate to press and even out the document.
• Special self-leveling book cradle for greater efficiency and fewer re-scans.

As you can see, the current devices works in the same logic. The only difference is that it uses a digital camera system rather than an analog one.

Of course, as time goes on, manufacturers of equipments for book digitization improve their systems with innovative features. So is the case with the Bookeye 4 V3 Kiosk, which has numerous options and features.

If you compare it to the Fujitsu Scansnap sv600 overhead scanner for example, you’ll understand what we mean. 

Best Consumer Book Scanner

This is the best consumer book digitization scanner, we would definitely go with the Fujitsu Scansnap SV600. Read more about the model, by checking our article on buying a book scanner from Amazon.

You can follow this link to check the price on Amazon for the SV600.

There are many things we like about this scanner, but we will try and be brief about it.

• We like the price of the machine. You can’t buy a professional scanner for 600 dollars. Still, the Fujitsu does a decent job for this price tag.
• The optical scanning resolution is nearly 300dpi. This is good enough for decent quality and for a lot of books successful OCR is possible.
• It features a linear camera. This means that the lighting systems and the camera sensor move together. The result is even lighting and quality over the entire surface of a page.
• It has a curvature correction system. This scanner does not have a self-leveling book cradle, therefore we need something to correct the curvature. It does a decent job, although it will not work properly all the time.
• The product is built by Fujitsu and it offers a manufacturer warranty. They will swap your machine if it goes wrong, which is a big plus.

The verdict is that the Fujitsu SV600 is a decent machine at a decent price tag. It does entry-level book scanning but nothing more.

Look at it as a document camera and not a full-on book scanner. It will scan your average book without any issues, although it’s still lacking compared to a professional scanner.

There are alternative book image document camera scanner available out there, such as the koolertron book professional book document scanner. Alternatively, you can try an Epson Perfection flatbed scanner. 

At the same time it is a scanner with smart OCR for mac and windows, which is great, especially in the scanning world. But you will mostly use it as an advanced document camera, nothing more.

Best professional book scanner for archives

The SMA Scanmaster is a professional book scanner. You will get high quality book scanning at a decent pages per minute value.  This is an A2 book scanner and it can be fitted with an automatic page turner if needed. It has some options that allow it to be transformed into an A1 book scanner, so you can ask SMA for that too. 

Our choice for a professional book scanner will always be the SMA Scanmaster 2. Why is that you may ask?

• It scans books that open up to A2+. The scanning surface is greater than C size. 99% of the books in this world are smaller than this. There aren’t many situations in which a book will be too big.
• The optical scanning resolution goes up to 1200dpi. Although you will mostly be scanning at 300dpi, it’s great to know the level of details you can capture.
• Motorized book cradle. The book cradle in this scanner is self-leveling and motorized. It goes up and down by itself, and automatically levels when touching the glass plate. For ergonomics, the scanner is a dream. All you have to do is just flip the page, as the book cradle is automatically height adjustable.
• Scanning quality is second to none. There is literally no device out there with better scanning quality. The lighting system is perpendicular to the document 100% of the time. Even tones and light, resulting in near-perfect color accuracy on your scanned images.
• You will love the build quality. Honestly, this scanner is built like a tank. It will work for many years without letting you down. And when something breaks, you can repair it quickly.

SMA is probably the fastest-growing company in the book scanning market. This isn’t by accident. Their products are well built with an emphasis on scanning operators and efficiency.

A Top Tip regarding the Scanmaster 2 model is that it can be upgraded to a fully automatic book scanner. SMA now offers the automatic page turner option to new customers and as an upgrade to past customers. But at the same time, the devices work in semi automatic, which make them great units for archives as well.

The price of this bookscanner is also good, when considering the great archival characteristics and robustness. It really is the perfect book scanner machine, so feel free to enquire. 

The best automatic book scanner

There are currently 2 automatic machines that we can recommend you to buy. The Treventus is an A4 size (2 times A4 ) book scanner, while the Roboscan V2 goes all the way up to A2. Given the type of documents you will be scanning, we suggest being careful which one you want to buy.

These scanners do not exclude one another, and especially for larger projects they can be used together, for processing different type of books.  I would say the Roboscan V2 is an easy to use scanner, but the Treventus is not far behind it. 

SMA RoboScan V2 – The most versatile book scanner automatic page turner

The SMA Roboscan V2 is definitely the best all rounder when it comes to book scanning. It’s based on the 2nd gen line camera book scanners and it’s a semi automatic or manual book scanner all in one. 

It offers 3 different scanning modes and will probably be able to scan just about any book up to A2 in size.

• Manual Book Scanning – This mode will work perfectly when you have fragile books. When you enable this mode, you can scan with or without the V or Flat Scanning Glass. Yes, you can choose to scan with or without the flattening glass.
• Semi Automatic Mode – In this mode, the scanner will do everything automatically, except for page turning. The flattening glass will go up and down without the operators intervention, leaving you just to turn the page.
• Automatic Mode – When scanning in automatic mode, you can leave all your worries aside. The scanner will do everything, including turning the page of the book. It is perfect for unattended scanning, or for an operator to handle more than one scanner. It’s what you would call a fast book scanner for higher overall scanning speed.  So remember, when you use the automatic mode, you can expect your book scanner to work with automatic page turner. 

The scanner offers all of the productivity tools you will expect with a high end bookscanner. It has a powerful scanning software that is combined with Smart OCR and a lot of processing features you will need. Being a linear capturing unit, it offers great quality while maintaining fast scanning.

All in all, this is a versatile device, and it’s like a swiss army knife. It’s not bigger than other bookscanners ( actually it’s a bit smaller ) but it can scan just about anything. Also, it’s one of the only automated book scanners. Highly recommended!

Treventus ScanRobot 2.0 MDS – High Speed Book Scanning

The Treventus ScanRobot 2.0MDS is the only scanner that scans by itself 99% of the time. It’s the only choice for a full-on automatic book scanning.

We know the models available on the market. This is by far the fastest, the most efficient and the most polished model out there. The Treventus Mechatronics product can capture book pages automatically, and works with a vshaped book cradle. 

• Automatic page turning is done by page suction and air. It’s gentle to the book and will never damage it. This approach increases efficiency as the equipment scans each page while turning it. No time is lost in the process for greater productivity. 
• Scanning Resolution is 300 or 400dpi. You may think it’s on the lower side. In practice, you will never go above it. This machine is built for scanning large collections of books. 
• Scanning Quality is very good. The page is sucked onto the camera sensor, therefore it will always lay flat. This, in turn, leads to better overall quality and color consistency. 
• The book scanning software is the most advanced software in the market. It features standard workflows and custom ones. You can post-process scans in the software. If you build a customized image processing workflow, it will all be done automatically. 
• OCR is integrated into the software.  After scanning, the files are taken automatically to the OCR module. No manual intervention. This leads to significant increases in productivity. 

When you see the machine in real life, you’ll quickly understand why it’s the best one. Other automatic book scanners have an auto function, but it depends a lot on the book you are scanning. 

And when they flip the pages automatically it takes a lot of time. The Treventus scanner just breezes through, at 2500 pages per hour. 

FAQ

Here you can find some of the questions we get from our readers. If you want this explained further, please go ahead and contact us. 

What does a book scanner do?

A book scanner or a book scanning machine is specifically built to make book scanning and digitization more efficient. The equipment is designed to accommodate mainly books and bound documents, having different characteristics and features which make the process easier to handle.

Which scanner is best for scanning pages books?

Currently, the best scanner for scanning books is the SMA Roboscan V2. This equipment provides huge versatility, as it offers the possibility to scan with or without a flattening glass, in manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic mode. It also has a scanning area that exceeds A2, which is enough for 99% of the books out there.

Which book scanner is best?

The best book scanner is currently the SMA Roboscan V2. It is the best all rounder, offering flat scanning, v shape scanning, automatic page turning and also manual page turning. A the same time you can scan with a flattening glass and also you can use the book scanner without the flattening v shape glass.

What is the best way to scan a book?

We always recommend that you send a book to a scanning service provider, if you have a lower quantity or you have no prior experience in book scanning. If you do want to do it yourself, you have to buy a full on book scanner, to capture the images of the book pages. This will be only the initial step, from there you will have to do some post processing and also text recognition, layout correction and general text correction.

How much does it cost to scan a book? 

The price for scanning a book will depend on certain elements such as book size, color or bitonal, the age of the book and the provider that is doing the service. For example, www.overnight-scanning.eu charges as low as 0.07 € for a page.  Usually, the price is calculated per page and depending on the total volume of books and pages, a service provider might charge more or less, depending on the volume of work. 

How do I scan a book into PDF? 

You have two options if you want to scan your book. Either you send your book to www.overnight-scanning.eu and they will do it for a relatively good price, or you can buy a bookscanner and scan it yourself. It is recommended to use a service provider when you have low volumes, and only buy scanners when the amount of books you want to scan is huge.

To scan a book into PDF yourself, you first have to scan each of the pages from that book. After scanning, process and correct the images and send them to an OCR software. During the optical character recognition process, images are turned into readable text, which can then be delivered as PDF or even as a word file. 

What is the best way to scan a textbook ?

The best way to scan a single textbook, would be to use a service provider like www.overnight-scanning.eu. They have experience in running both small and large orders. You always have the option of scanning the textbook yourself, but in practice it is too much of a hassle to be worth it. If you insist on doing it yourself, you can check above the process. 

If you want to get the best textbook scanner, you will have to take into consideration some aspects. First of all the book cradle, if it suits the mechanical demands of your textbooks. Then it’s the resolution, how many DPI do you need to properly scan your materials. And then there are the other factors, such as file delivery, formats, or other image corrections aspects which would make you shift from one textbook scanner to another.

How do I digitize my book collection?

If you want to scan your book collection, you must first evaluate what kind of book scanner is better suited to most of your books. Not all book scanners are built equally, so think twice before making your purchase. This is just the beginning of the story. After this you will have to go through buying the software for post processing and create the workflows for this. If you want to avoid the hassle of such a project, just get in touch with a service provider to do the job for you.

Can I scan my books into eBooks?

Scanning books to ebooks is definitely possible. While you may think this is done with a good book scanner only, I can advise that the real work starts after scanning. Post processing of the images, layout correction and text correction are mandatory steps to creating a good ebook. We always say that taking on the task of ebook creation is not easy, and the more experience you have with scanning books and create digital files from them, the better. 

How long does it take to scan a book?

The time it takes to scan a book will vary depending on the equipment and software you are using. Also, an experienced operator can significantly reduce the overall processing time. For example, with a 1000 pages per hour scanner, you should be able to scan a 300 page book in around half an hour. This includes most set up times and also downtime which will happen during the scanning process. 

How much does it cost to digitize books?

The cost of digitizing books depends on a couple of factors. If you use a service provider like overnight-scanning.eu, they will charge as low as 0.07 EUR per page. If you do this yourself, you will have to invest in a book scanner, software and lots of workflows and user training. I guess it’s always up to you to evaluate and then decide on the cost of digitizing books.

How do I make a book scanner?

Making a bookscanner is not an easy thing. While most of the people posses the mechanical skills to build one, it also requires a lot of experience with cameras, lenses and other post processing solutions. Not to mention that you must be sure that in the end, the book scanner you make will deliver professional results.

How much does a book scanner cost?

The cost of a bookscanner can vary from a couple of thousand dollars to in excess of 200 or even 300 thousand dollars. The average cost for a book scanner will be around 15 thousand dollars, but usually these are entry level devices, which won’t work for every project you have.

Which scanner is used for scanning pages of books?

The custom built book scanner is used for scanning pages of books. A book scanner works by capturing images of your book pages. While the principle is similar to any scanner, a good bookscanner will be optimized to scan book pages. This involves using specific lighting and a purpose built camera with lenses. Not to mention that you will have to use a special book cradle, to correct for the geometric difference between the camera and the book pages.

Our Verdict on the best book scanner

It’s never a straight answer when talking about the best book scanner out there.

• When you need a quick capture system for books and documents, then the SV600 is your choice. It has a very low price tag, and for quick scans, it’s good enough. Remember, you won’t process a lot of books with it. It’s not fast enough. You use it for those occasional scans where an average scan is good enough.
• If you scan books professionally, then the Scanmaster 2 should be your choice. It’s built sturdy and will last a lifetime. The scanning quality is almost perfect and the ergonomics are there for continuous scanning. It can also scan over A2 in size, which is a big plus.
• When you need an automatic book scanner the Treventus Scanrobot should be your pick. It’s by far the most expensive one, but you should buy it only when you have to scan a lot. This means scanning providers, libraries or other companies that do a lot of book scanning.

We hope that this guide will give you all the information you need. Buying your next book scanner should be an easier task now.