digicamscan Wiki

Use your digital camera as a scanner!

Status: Beta

Brought to you by: thpapen

UsageInstructions

use a tripod, copy stand, or anything else that fixes distance and orientation of the document on the photo
even though uneven lighting can be partially corrected, reduce specular highlights as far as possible (even if this decreases overall brightness)
set your digital camera to fixed settings (focus, aperture, ISO level, shutter speed, white balance); if you happen to own a Canon camera, the CHDK project could help
shoot a picture of each page
for automatic lighting correction, also take a photo of a white sheet of paper of correct dimensions

start digicamscan
load one of the pictures (that of the white page, if you took one)
on the left, the picture is displayed in total; click to select a region
on the right, the selected region is displayed; click to set a marker, right-click to remove one
mark at least the four corners of the sheet of paper and one point on each edge
click "Calibrate" when you are done, and check that the green line runs along the edges of the page

calibration dialog

click "Transform >" to get to the next dialog
select all pictures you want to transform (excluding the white sheet)
white adjust: tick the checkbox if you have calibrated a white sheet of paper and want automatic lighting correction
contrast: increasing the "min" lets dark region become black, and lowering the "max" value lets light regions become white
hit "Test" to test your settings
set the output dimensions; real world size, pixel size and resolution depend on each other, so the one that is selected is calculated automatically
"Start transform..." starts the transform process

transform dialog