(Archived) Pen / scanner for books?

[bounce 74]

I'd like to get some of text I've written and passages from books into Evernote. Can someone recommend a pen/scanner device that integrates with Evernote well? thanks!

[jfwarrior 6]

Livescribe is integrated with Evernote now, but they're really mainly for inputting and writing down data and then digitalising it instead of serving as a scanner.

[bounce 74]

I suppose I could just talk what I need to get into Evernote into a Livescribe pen. I've always thought they were for writing down notes and the audio was a placemarker type thing? Anyone know how well a Livescribe converts speech to txt into Evernote; clunky, seamless, even possible? Thanks

[TheGurkha 1]

You might be making this more complicated than it need to be. Just scan to an image, and put the image into EN. Any old scanner can do that.

I scan away, and then copy the scans into my EN import folder and that's that. EN picks them up automatically.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I agree with Gurkha - sounds like you're over complicating things. However, if you want the handwritten pages OCR'd, you'll want them scanned as jpgs.

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=15182&p=59814&hilit=handwriting+recognition+pdf#p59616

Going forward, you may want to take a look at Livescribe. Please search the board on Livescribe for more info.

[nova47 60]

I have a Scansnap S1300 and like its integration with EN alot.

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=19403&hilit=+scansnap#p80433

More info can be found searching the forums

[bounce 74]

Well the reason I specifically wanted a pen type scanner is because I'm scanning passages from about 2000 books I've marked up. I only want the passages, not the whole page. A full size scanner also isn't portable and clunky to use in bed! :?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Well the reason I specifically wanted a pen type scanner is because I'm scanning passages from about 2000 books I've marked up. I only want the passages, not the whole page. A full size scanner also isn't portable and clunky to use in bed! :?

IME, I think you'd be unhappy using a pen scanner for something like this. I have a VuPoint Magic Scanner. It's not a pen scanner but it is a stand alone scanner. These scanners rely upon the user moving the scanner at the right speed and any bumps in the paper can cause problems. You cannot select a name for the image - the scanner creates it's own name. So after scanning a page, you can't name the file "Leaves_of_Grass_pg32" or anything else that is meaningful to you. If you want to document the scan, in any way (IE name of the source book), once it's in Evernote, you're going to have to connect the pen/card to a computer & view each scan & some how, remember what book it's from and the page (if you want that info, too.) Also, you cannot view the scan to see if it's accurate, until you hook up the scanner/card to a computer. The only reason I have the VuPoint is for times when I'm absolutely unable to take something home to scan. And, I always try to get 2 or 3 scans of the item, so I hopefully get at least one good one.

IME, it would be easier, in the long run, to just use a regular ol' flatbed scanner, place the book on the scanner & scan the page, name the file something meaningful & then dump it into an Evernote watched/import folder, where it will get auto added to EN & then you can change the title to something more meaningful, too. (Search the board if you need more info on watched/import folders.)

[bounce 74]

I figured a pen scanner might be a little too imprecise after looking at amazon reviews for a bunch of different brands. They all said that often you have to redo a few times and I don't have the time or patience for that

A flatbed is way too cumbersome to be having in bed and once I get the the passages from each book they'll be "merged" by book. Scanning full pages would bury the info I need (I have to go over some of it often for work)

I thought about using the Evernote trunk add-on that allows you to speak info and have it transcribed, but you have to dial a phone number for that each time. I could use Dragon naturally speaking and dictate what I want then copy that over to Evernote, but that method I may as well just type what I need into Evernote. Looks like typing (or pic and OCR) is the most seamless route at this point, just seems like there should be a quicker way..

[dan7000 26]

I have had both the Irispen and the WizCom Quicklink. In the past, I used both of them for the same types of applications you mention: scanning just a few lines from a document.

I disagree with those who say that scanning is difficult or inconsistent. Maybe I have a steady hand, but both pens scanned and OCR'd lines of text very reliably.

I much prefer the IRISPen for two reasons: 1) you can scan directly into any active document. So, you don't have the issue B&F mentioned about naming your files. For instance, if you have a Word file open on your screen, and you scan 2 lines of text, the text appears in Word. This was before I had EN, so I don't know if it worked with EN.

Unfortunately, I abandoned IRIS for Wizcom, because I wanted to scan things on the go, without my computer. Wizcom works on batteries and stores pages internally, for subsequent sync to the computer. However, the software was written for a serial port connection to a DOS computer: technology circa 1991. It barely worked with my old XP machine, and would not install at all on my new machine.

So for the past 3 years I have been pen-scanner-less. I've been wanting to use one again, because I did find them very useful. I'll be interested to know what you decide.