I’ve used a digital camera to “scan” documents in the past, it works and it’s fast, the advantage to using a scanner over a camera is that it provides uniform sizing, and it can prepare your scan to various formats on the fly – but it is one of those devices that for most people only gets used on occasion and therefore isn’t truly necessary, which is what makes this sub-$20 alternative very attractive.

Instructables user DHagen came up with his design to avoid spending good money on a public copy machine, without the expense of shelling out for a dedicated copier or scanner.

Using a pane of Plexiglas and some nuts, bolts and bits of metal, DHagen built a highly functional camera-mount apparatus. When it comes to scanning books, the DHagen model has a distinct advantage over flatbed scanners, in that the Plexiglas is placed over the book, holding the page straight and keeping things square, no matter what side of the page is being scanned. It7s also portable, which makes for some delicious mobile copyright infringement.

The disadvantage, obviously, is that it won’t shoot to PDF, but images can be painlessly converted (LifeHacker suggests Qipit, Snapter, or scanR as opposed to DHagen’s method). [Instructables via LifeHacker]

Related Videos

Sponsors