> New Scanner Eliminates Spine Shadow > > By Mike Berman > > Frustration is trying to scan pages from a book on a flatbed scanner. > The solution: the new OpticBook 3600 ($249) from Plustek. > > It's happened to all of us _- we try to scan or copy pages from a book > or other publication only to discover that some of the type is distorted > or the type > near the spine is lost in what has become known as "spine shadow." > > So, we end up either breaking the spine of the book to get it to lie > flat or cut the pages out of the book, neither of which is a desirable > solution. > > Enter, stage left, the OpticBook 3600. > > Plustek has developed what they call SEE (Shadow Elimination Element) > Technology, which allows book pages to lie flat on the bed of the > scanner and uses > a lamp with curved ends to scan type close to the book's spine. The > result is a readable, undistorted copy in eight-to-10 seconds. > > Of course the scanner has all of the features we've come to expect from > a flatbed including the ability to email, copy, and scan images at the > touch of > a button. But the additional "book action buttons" allow us to preview, > color scan, grayscale scan or text scan those pesky book pages. > > In addition, the scanner comes with Book Pilot software, which: > > _ It automatically rotates images as consecutive pages are scanned. > > _ It gives you an image preview in 3.5 seconds. > > _ It allows you to save images in JPG, BMP or PDF formats. > > _ You can convert images to Microsoft Word or PDF documents. > > _ You can adjust the scan frame size to fit the book size. > > _ You can save all the images of a particular job into one file. > > Plus you can scan to OCR, view images in "real time" to make adjustments > in contrast, brightness and gamma, and categorize your images. > > The scanner comes with the standard software bundle (except for Book > Pilot): NewSoft Presto Page Manager, ULead Photo Impact XL SE, ULead > Photo Explorer > SE and ABBYY FineReader 5.0 Sprint. > > Specs on the scanner, for those that are addicted to such things, are > pretty much what we've come to expect from the new generation of > flatbeds: > > _ A high-speed USB 2.0 interface. > > _ Hardware resolution of 1200 dpi with software interpolated resolution > of 2400 dpi. > > _ 48-bit input and 24/48-bit output scanning mode for color, 16-bit > input and 8/16-bit output for grayscale. > > _ Single-pass scanning mode. > > _ A cold cathode lamp. > > For more information, check out the company's web site at > www.plustek.com. >