How to scan hard copy manuals into PDF

[bertoh]

Glad to see the chiller forum up and running. I am wondering if anyone has a good way to copy IOM's to pdf files. The reason I ask is I have a lot of manuals in the van and am getting worried about losing it all (theft, fire, whatever)
I have scanned a few pages and it takes up MB, results are poor enough too.
Some are A4 pages some are A3 book bond.
Was wondering about type of scanner needed and do i need to buy the Acrobat writer to get a good result.
Any experience would be helpful>
TIA

[ncboston]

If you have a company laptop why not download to a thumbdrive?

[ChillerWisperer]

If you have a company laptop why not download to a thumbdrive?

I think he's talking about scanning hard copy into pdf format, not just backing up computer files. I have an HP officejet and the software that came with it allows me to scan pages into pdf. A normal page will be about 120Kb, with graphics, maybe 250Kb. It is really slow and would probably take about an hour to save a 30 page manual.

[ncboston]

I understand. Why not scan the iom's or download the same literature from the mfr's website and transfer them to a thumbdrive. Instead of having to carry all that paper he could view the lit on his laptop at the jobsite if he has a laptop.

[Makinice]

I have been using http://www.pdf995.com/, for years, and have had good luck.

You may need to play around with the quality, color, etc..... to get a small file size.

Average scanned pdf is around 100K or less.

Best bet of course is to contact the manufactures first, and see if they already have the manuals available for download.

[ChillerWisperer]

I don't know about other manufacturers, but Trane only has the most current IOMs available on their website. I guess it make it more streamlined. You would have to have access to elibrary or the Eagle CD-ROMs for all the older versions of IOMs and anything on obsolete equipment.

[heavymetaldad]

kinda thought it was time consuming - i also have a sizeable 'paper' library

[dandyme]

scanning from paper to pdf is a little time comsuming


if your scanner didn't have a pdf creator software, there are several free ones.

after you get to the scan start screen...........find the advanced settings button......change the dpi setting........you'll have to play with dpi #

higher dpi = better quality & slower scan time

[bertoh]

Thanks for the replies, I will look into the pdf creator software. any recommendation ?
Not all the manufactures are making IOM available for download anymore.
I lost a HD on laptop that had5 years of downloads, and of course my backup plan didn't exist. May have to shell out for the clean room job of retrieving it.
Time to take a few sick days and start scanning!

[dschultz307]

Consider a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner.

I have a 550M (Apple version)

The sheet feeder supports 50 pages at a time.
I have scanned about 2000 pages of pay statements and medical forms.

Scans double sided too.

The PDF software has a variety of file and quality options including creating a searchable PDF file.

Check out the reviews on Amazon.

Dave

[seascott]

Following the mind numbing boredom of scanning 50 page manual only to find that the resulting pdf file was massive, I learned to take things to the professionals. Any copy centre is happy to scan your manual, drawings etc. and put them on a usb key for you. I've cut the amount of paper that I drive around around by a huge margin and that's what I tell the boss when he gets a copy bill. More and more manufacturers are making their older stuff available on their websites as well.

[Integrity Aire]

hit the office depot or find a scanner with an adf (automatic document feeder). alot of higher end copy machines also scan