Best Cheap Book Scanner Review | Lowest Price in 2023

The best cheap book scanner currently on the market is the combination of the Note Book Capture. We like that it offers three things that any cost efficient book scanner should offer :

• A price point that is well below market average. This means the Book Cradle can be ordered from one place and the Fujitsu Scansnap SV600 can be procured locally. So no costly shipping and customs costs.
• Scanning quality that is actually comparable to way more expensive book scanners. Yes, it only offers up to 300dpi, but for a lot of applications you won’t need more than that.
• Very efficient use of the cradle, given that you can move the support up and down quite easily, flatten the pages with the acrylic glass and also accommodate books up to 6cm thick, without giving up on scanning area.

Why buy a cheap book scanner and in what circumstances

A cheaper book scanner is not always the best solution, but we plan on letting you know when you should go for one. A lower cost will always mean a lower overall level of quality or even missing features. And in this case, you’d be right. But with the combination of the SV600 and the special book cradle, what you’re not getting compared to really expensive book scanners, is compensated with smart design and good feature replacement.

For example, the level of resolution is close to 300dpi. While some may argue this is too low, in most projects this is more than enough. The scanned images come out really well, they are easy to read, and the overall sharpness is surprisingly good. Then it’s the book thickness. The special book cradle only allows books with a thickness of up to 6cm. You’d actually be surprised that more than 99% of bound documents are below this value.

Regarding the page flattening, you can either get an acrylic or a special flattening glass. But the acrylic is surprisingly good at doing its job, and the image is good enough in most scanned materials. It’s also easy to move up and down, and the risk of it cracking when dropped is close to zero.

As you can see, even with small drawbacks, for most book scanning projects, the lack of certain features or even image quality, will not bring any actual downsides in the scanning process.

Specifications of a good book scanner that doesn’t cost much

We are going to look a bit at what you can consider a low priced but still rather good book scanner. The device we show today, covers a lot of good aspects, some are down to the Fujitsu Scansnap SV600, but a lot of them are down to the Note Book Capture  that is used in the process.

Scanning specs are as follows :

• Scanning area is the size of an A3, so when scanning books you can go as high as 2xA4 books. In other words, as long as your book opens close to A3, this should be ok to scan. This should cover around 90% of the books currently in use.
• Scanning speed is around 3 seconds for an A3, depending on quality settings. I guess 3 seconds is more than other devices, but just check their costs, these are devices well over 10 thousand dollars.
• Independent book levelling cradle. This means that you can adjust both the right and the left flaps, so everything aligns perfectly on the flattening glass. Such a feature is critical to get the best scanning quality and flat images you can currently get. Remember, books are not like documents, they require certain mechanical improvements so scanning is as effortless as possible. And by scanning we include the time spent on post processing, in the case of books that are not easy to scan, or images come out terrible from the scanner.
• Book thickness up to 6cm. As we already mentioned, most books are not thicker than this amount. So you should be safe when using this device, with just about most books in circulation. One very big plus is the fact that the manufacturer can build special XXL versions which allow for books up to 20cm to be scanned. So it doesn’t matter what books you have, there is a solution for all of them.

Is the Klip Snap the best low cost book scanner

It’s difficult these days to know whether and which device is the best one. But given the circumstances, the Klip Snap works really well with the Fujitsu SV600. It offers significant features to be attractive and given the low price point, you can feel that for certain projects, it will provide a large cost reduction while maintaining efficiency and productivity.

Another good thing about it is that the items are separated. You can still use your SV600 like you did before using the special cradle. It provides a really high flexibility in the scanning process, using the Scansnap separately for flat originals, and just putting it on the cradle when you have to scan books. This will be a dream for a lot of users, especially to those who have scanned books before on the Sv600, which are now about to have their life made easier.

Should you consider the SN EPS Superfile A2+ book scanner

We think the answer is yes. You should really look at this book scanner, as it provides great features for a price that is still well below the market price. It offers a lot of functionality, including the variable scanning height, which allows you to scan at different resolution and details levels. It’s really nice for extremely small originals that require scanning at larger resolution.

Then we have the book cradle, which is self elevating, and allows you to position books near perfect to the camera. It will reduce the level of book fold correction to nearly zero. I have always considered that having a book cradle included is a must, for just about any bookscanner on the market today.

Last but not least we have the scanning area. At around A2+, you will definitely be able to scan just about any book that is available on the market today. It will leave you with all the scanning area you need to complete most scanning projects successfully. I really recommend you try this cheap book scanner, especially if the Note Book Capture does not make the cut.

Should you buy this low price scanner

Well it all depends on what you need from your device. The SV600 already scans a full A3, so the special book cradle will only scan up to A3. But I guess 99 percent of the books out there are not bigger than this. So for most users, this should be enough.

The best thing about it is that the flattening glass and the lifting cradles will make the scanning experience identical to using a high end book scanner. And you will not get anywhere near this with a normal book scanner, as even the cheaper ones cost 5 times more than this.

One thing that might get you thinking is the resolution. But is it really that low ? Considering that most of the scanning out there is done at 300dpi or below, you are not really losing out on anything. Trust us, you don’t want a 400dpi book, as this will mean significant storage capacity and really low loading times.

Based on the things above, I would consider that you are really making a good decision to buy the Note Book Capture, if the few downsides are not a problem for you. We are sure you are getting professional capabilities for a fraction of the price.