Software Manual Preservation: DIY Bookscanning

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2011, July 31 - 10:02am

PowerPup

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Joined: 2009 Oct 25

Software Manual Preservation: DIY Bookscanning

With my recent conquest of development software, (specifically Symantec C++ and THINK Pascal.) I thought it would be useful for me and others if I try to "bookscan" their programming manuals.

I plan on using this Instrucable to create my "book scanner." The results are actually quite good.
I put together a little sample PDF of THINK Pascal's User Manual. But I didn't have the tripod setup so some pages are too small, warped, etc.
Once I setup a proper place to do it, I'll be working on "book scanning" the following:

THINK Pascal:
User Manual (Image scan complete, prepping pages for PDF.)
Object-Orientated Programming Manual

Symantec C++:
Compiler Guide
Visual Architect and THINK Class Library Guide
Turns out there were PDFs of these on Symantec's C++ 8.6 CD: Download them here.

I plan on eventually book scanning the following: (these are not as scarce, so help preserve and get the real book from thiftbooks.com or amazon.com!)

Macintosh Pascal Programming Primer vol. 1: Inside the toolbox with THINK Pascal by Dave Mark & Cartwright Reed
Foundations of Mac Programming by Dan Parks Sydow

I might do some other general programming books I have. But the priority are the four programming manuals.

Format: Final results will be PDF. However I have been looking at the Djvu format. Apparently there was a Browser plugin made for Mac OS 9. And DjVuLibre can convert Djvu to PDF. So I would be able to provide both formats.

Current Status:
I am currently in the process of prepping the pages for "THINK Pascal: User Manual."

Comments

2011, July 31 - 7:33pm

mjgleason

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Joined: 2010 Aug 14

Please let us know how this project turns out. I have been thinking of doing some bookscanning myself, but won't be able to start on that until next year at the soonest.

Eventually I'd like to get Inside Macintosh vol 4 and 5 and some other classic mac programming books from eBay and get those converted to PDF. I have the newer topic-specific editions of IM, but I am doing some programming for the Mac 128k/512k, Plus, and SE and for those older macs the older IMs are more helpful.

I should also note that there may be PDFs of some of the manuals you are thinking about on the SymC 8.6 disc I posted which includes Think Pascal 4. I don't remember what was on there, other than there were lots of documentation in PDF form.

2011, August 1 - 6:59am

PowerPup

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Joined: 2009 Oct 25

Well I had the CD already downloaded, so I checked it out. Turns out that Symantec's C++ 7 manuals were already there. Makes my job easier. I'll get them uploaded by tomorrow.

There weren't any of THINK Pascal's manuals. So I'll continue to "book scan" those.

2011, August 2 - 12:12pm

rpangrazio

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Joined: 2009 Aug 27

I would be very interested in how this goes. I have manuals for Hypercard 1.2.5 and wouldlike to see them as a PDF.

2011, August 2 - 2:18pm

Temporary Joe

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Joined: 2009 Nov 14

I'll scan my original Carmen Sandiego manual.

2011, August 2 - 4:33pm

MCP

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Joined: 2010 Mar 12

Tip: I always do an online search to see if a manual is already available before scanning it myself. For games, other than googling, I check replacementdocs.com and squakenet.com to see if there is a cross-platform manual already uploaded. Mac apps like HyperCard are less likely to be available, but be sure to search anyway. Apple made some manuals available in PDF or other online formats, sometimes bundled with the software itself on floppy or CD, sometimes from their own FTP site.

2011, August 2 - 5:12pm

Temporary Joe

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Joined: 2009 Nov 14

^^ they often lack images, though.

2011, August 2 - 9:29pm

PowerPup

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Well I did a little researching and it turns out there is another book that originally came with THINK Pascal 4.0 that I sadly did not get.
http://books.google.com/books?id=XlEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA74#v=onepage&q&f=false

THINK Pascal 4.0 comes with three well written softcover manuals - a user manual, a resource and utilities manual, and a guide to object-oriented programming as well.

I am half way through "scanning" THINK Pascal's User manual. (All right pages. Now just to get all the left pages. )

Symantec C++ 7 manuals have been uploaded (sit archive in first post,) I've uploaded the PDFs to the app's page.

2011, August 15 - 2:48am

PowerPup

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Joined: 2009 Oct 25

I have now finished "book scanning" the second half of the THINK Pascal User Manual. Now just to manually prep all the pages for the PDF.

The next book to be scanned will be THINK Pascal's Object-Orientated Programming Manual.

Edit: Here's some samples of the final results using Scan Tailor 1.0.0Beta10,
(Tiff images appear inverted due to a Google Docs bug, if you download them they will be normal.)
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5

2011, August 15 - 2:25pm

#10

Temporary Joe

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Joined: 2009 Nov 14

Say, that's pretty good quality. Love to build a "book scanner", I have a lot of things on the backlog, including some oversized maps, magazines, etc. etc.

Problem is my digital camera is about 10 years old, and has imperfections with light, resolution, etc. (if the light isn't PERFECT, then it's pretty poor)

2011, August 15 - 7:49pm

#11

Temporary Joe

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Joined: 2009 Nov 14

Also: since I don't have a Pro Account, does anyone actually have a PDF of this, or do I have to string together my own?

2011, August 16 - 9:52am

#12

PowerPup

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Joined: 2009 Oct 25

I'll be releasing a PDF once I've finished prepping all 580 pages. (Yes, that many!) To my knowledge there's no digital copy of the THINK Pascal manuals.

The pictures above were merely samples of what the final result will look like. Not perfectly de-warped but really good for open source software.

2011, August 16 - 1:26pm

#13

Temporary Joe

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Joined: 2009 Nov 14

I meant a PDF of the Instructables files.

2011, August 16 - 4:18pm

#14

Balrog

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Joined: 2009 Apr 24

These scans look good.

Personally, I scan in 8-bit greyscale at 600 dpi. Then, I downconvert using Imagemagick's -levels option and reduce the depth to 4-bit greyscale — and if necessary downsample the dpi to 300. It takes time, but preserves exec detail that's important in schematics.

Software documentation probably doesn't have much of this, so 400dpi or so scanning at 1bit or 4bit is probably enough, and if you do use -levels, you can be more aggressive with it.

2011, August 16 - 7:35pm

#15

PowerPup

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Joined: 2009 Oct 25

@TJ: Oh yeah. Should have realized that. Sorry, I'm not a Pro account either.

@Balrog: Just so you know, I'm not actually using a scanner, but rather a camera. It's not destructive to the binding of the books.

Following the instructable, I've set the the images in Scan Tailor to 300DPI, and left the output at 600DPI in B&W mode.

2011, August 16 - 9:01pm

#16

Temporary Joe

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Joined: 2009 Nov 14

Ah, turns out the author/s provided one. Neat!

http://diybookscanner.org/PDF/Bargain-Price-Book-Scanner-From-A-Cardboar...

2013, February 6 - 11:19am

#17

PowerPup

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Just wanted to give a small update: I had made a chapter 1-3 preview pdf of the THINK Pascal manual but forgot to post it.
http://powerpup.yi.org/THINK%20Pascal%20User%20Manual%20Sample%201-3.pdf

The end result will be a little better than that. (Had to start over when I realized the left and right pages were different sizes. Its a slow going progress, and very easily forgotten when busy with college and life. But rest assured I WILL get it done. I'll have move time (hopefully) over the summer.