Scanning Documents (into PDF?)
 

I need to scan *a lot* of documents. My scanner only scans a single page at a time. In other words, I don't have a "feeder" with my scanner. I am not looking to buy new hardware.

My scanner is a HP Photosmart C4150.

I was hoping to receive some recommendations in terms of software. Here's what I need--but any other functions/tips would be helpful too:

1) I need to be able to scan (one at a time) several pages but then put all those pages into a single file.

2) I assume this means scanning several pages into a single PDF, but if there is a new file format you'd recommend other than PDF, please comment.

3) My hope is that I will be able carry such files around on future handhelds, so again, tips on file format compatibility for various handhelds would be helpful.

4) Obviously, since I have *a lot* to scan, the faster the process, the better since I have a relatively limited amount of time to do such scans.

5) Any other ideas/tips/thoughts?

Thanks in advance!



Semi-related:
Perhaps this will help someone who comes across this post in the future somehow/someway:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-to-pdf-13604/

Hello,

I have a HP Photosmart 2510 and from time to time have to scan multiple pages into one document too. For that purpose I use Xsane which does the job well, although time consuming of course, one page at the time. I imagine operating from the command line will be faster but I like to see what's getting done. Hope it helps.

Kind regards,

Eric

Someone else recommended SimpleScan to me which is great. I like it better (since it's simpler) than XSane. At the same time, I can see why someone would like XSane though, but for what I'm doing, SimpleScan is great. In fact, it's way better/faster than the HP software that runs on Windows.

I haven't had a reason to use PDF Chain yet, but it looks powerful for PDF manipulation. I like the attachments feature.



(I'm going to leave this post open a few days in case anyone else has some ideas, and then I'll mark it solved. Thanks again!)

What I normally do, because it works and I haven't bother to look for a better way because I don't have to do it often nor do it for more than two or three pages at a time every couple of months or so, is this.

It's crude and not at all elegant, but it works:

Scan page. Save as image file. Rinse and repeat.

Import images into a document in OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Adjust picture (image) sizes to fit page (usually setting them to "original size" does this for American "letter size" pages).

Export to PDF.

Test PDF in a PDF viewer.

Great idea. I keep forgetting OpenOffice can save to PDF. Your thoughts were marked as helpful.

Anyone else?

We scan to a folder on a share then play with the images. Problem is that any scanned image needs to be verified page by page. Even the old OCR-X stuff needed to be checked. Unless you have a very good OCR program it will be a lot of work.

You can however scan to images also.

I think there are high end MF printers for offices that can do what you want. They all have hard drives and pretty good sorting ability and storage along with network support.

If this is a one time deal, take it to a local shop. It will be done in a hour or so.

Hello,

xsane at least has a batch-mode, it is possible to scan several pages into one PDF-file.

An interesting question would be if this batch-mode is compatible with modern MF-devices with a feeder. I can't find this out since I have a HP-PSC-1410 (which has no feeder). But it would be interesting if someone knew this.

Markus

A slight modification of frankbell's approach is to scan directly into an OpenOffice document. Under the Insert menu, you'll find Picture, and the submenu there allows you to request a scan. I always have to re-size it a bit once done, but it works.

I second this.

I tried this once, but it didn't like me. I do so little scanning into documents I was to lazy to troubleshoot it.

I'm loving SimpleScan. Haven't seen any reason to not use it.

One tip with page size:
If the page size you choose doesn't work well under Preferences, do Page-->Crop and it will crop for subsequent pages...or you can modify this. So easy.

Note:
"Letter" is the standard 8.5" x 11" size for the United States.

Thanks everyone for your help.