I want to take my book and make it into a pdf and then put it together again. I actually have two books but I am unfamiliar with how to do this. I know I need to scan it. Does anyone know how to go about doing this?

What is the best way to take the book apart?

What type of scanner?

How would you put the book back together again?

This is what I was thinking. Take my book up to a local copy & print shop. Ask them to dismantle the binding (cut it?). Scan and create a pdf. Put the pages into "sheet protectors" and put it into a 3-ring binder. That way I still have the book which can be brought to games to be used (while being protected) and I'll have a pdf copy for my use.

What do you think? Got a better way to do this? Personal experience? Your a book lover and have rare knowledge that you wish to share? Please enlighten me.

Have you looked into the expense of all those page protectors? What about the increased size the book would be? It kind of seems like a potentially regrettable idea.

A print shop probably won't do it, they wouldn't want to be liable if you turned around and started putting it on piracy sites. But you never know, some places just want your money, so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask.

If you want to do it yourself, you'll need a scanner, many multifunction printers have this, and have a sheet feeder too to make it fast. Once scanned, you'll need something like Adobe Acrobat (full version,not just the reader) you import the scans, run character recognition, index it, and output to PDF.

I've done it for work, and its actually very easy to do, but the cost of the scanner and software is what keeps most normal people from doing it. Easily over $400.

I used to work in a copy shop long ago, and I would use the giant cutter to cut the spines off my music books and then coil bind them, so that they would stay open to a page without having to be held. That can be done for a few bucks (note that the book's hard covers won't be able to be bound - you'd have to throw them out and use clear covers, or something).

Like Ghostofman says, though, the scanning part is intensely labour/gear intensive; a copy shop would charge you out the wazoo for that (and might refuse on grounds of copyright). But if you have the time and the tools, you can do it!

You might consider this: http://www.bookscan.us/

You might want to check out http://www.diybookscanner.org.

If you are just looking to make something for yourself you don't have to go all out, especially on software costs. Mostly you will just be spending a lot of time.

Hope this helps...

Quoting myself feels weird...

But I thought I should mention that this service has its limits. If you are looking to scan a book with just words on a page, it is awesome. All the featured options are great.

If you are looking to scan a book like the EotE rules, with background images behind the text, color changes (like white text on dark backgrounds), sidebars, tables and some odd formatting on certain pages, the other services (OCR, conversion to Word and, my particular interest, mp3!) don't work well at all.

In either case, you can still get image scans which might be all you really want or need.

I just want to point out that distributing the PDF to your friends would be illegal, even if you don't sell it. Besides, how could you destroy such a beautiful book?

I really wish FFG would do PDF versions of this game. I just started DMing it using the Beginner Box the other night for my group and everyone seemed to really like the system and focus on storytelling rather than crunchy numbers. Now all of them are eager to start making their own characters soon and really get into the game. I purchased the Core book myself so I can have that for reference all the time as I'm the GM, but it would be nice for the others to be able to purchase a cheaper PDF version so they can reference it whenever they want, rather than just when we get together as a group.

I'm also probably going to be the one having to buy any pre-made adventures or character class/source books, and with everything being done in hardcover, though it makes it that much better looking and higher quality, it's certainly not helpful to my bank account. PDF versions would not only be easier on the wallet, but I wouldn't have to lug around all those extra hardcover books too. I may discuss splitting the costs of the books between all of us going forward, but just having PDF's options would be so much better.

I know there is the whole piracy thing that FFG is probably wanting to avoid by releasing PDF's, but I gotta think that the risk of piracy shouldn't outweigh the positives that would come by the potential to sell a lot more copies of the books and potentially bring more people into the game by having cheaper options. If Paizo and many other companies can do it with all their books, why not FFG? More options for the customer is always a win win. Anyway, just wanted to throw my two cents out there. I'll continue to support and play the game either way, though I probably won't be able to get many of the books unless my group agrees to help split the costs.

I really wish FFG would do PDF versions of this game. I just started DMing it using the Beginner Box the other night for my group and everyone seemed to really like the system and focus on storytelling rather than crunchy numbers. Now all of them are eager to start making their own characters soon and really get into the game. I purchased the Core book myself so I can have that for reference all the time as I'm the GM, but it would be nice for the others to be able to purchase a cheaper PDF version so they can reference it whenever they want, rather than just when we get together as a group.

I'm also probably going to be the one having to buy any pre-made adventures or character class/source books, and with everything being done in hardcover, though it makes it that much better looking and higher quality, it's certainly not helpful to my bank account. PDF versions would not only be easier on the wallet, but I wouldn't have to lug around all those extra hardcover books too. I may discuss splitting the costs of the books between all of us going forward, but just having PDF's options would be so much better.

I know there is the whole piracy thing that FFG is probably wanting to avoid by releasing PDF's, but I gotta think that the risk of piracy shouldn't outweigh the positives that would come by the potential to sell a lot more copies of the books and potentially bring more people into the game by having cheaper options. If Paizo and many other companies can do it with all their books, why not FFG? More options for the customer is always a win win. Anyway, just wanted to throw my two cents out there. I'll continue to support and play the game either way, though I probably won't be able to get many of the books unless my group agrees to help split the costs.

Sigh... FFG isn't allowed to do PDFs for Star Wars due to license restrictions. Period, end of story. It has nothing to do with Piracy (as is shown by the fact that they sell PDFs to other RPGs that they make). PDFs are considered electronic gaming material, and so fall under a license for computer games (which means more money to spend to get the rights). Hence why they aren't doing it.

Sigh... FFG isn't allowed to do PDFs for Star Wars due to license restrictions. Period, end of story. It has nothing to do with Piracy (as is shown by the fact that they sell PDFs to other RPGs that they make). PDFs are considered electronic gaming material, and so fall under a license for computer games (which means more money to spend to get the rights). Hence why they aren't doing it.

This should be on a sticky thread somewhere on the front of the forum

Sigh... FFG isn't allowed to do PDFs for Star Wars due to license restrictions. Period, end of story. It has nothing to do with Piracy (as is shown by the fact that they sell PDFs to other RPGs that they make). PDFs are considered electronic gaming material, and so fall under a license for computer games (which means more money to spend to get the rights). Hence why they aren't doing it.

This should be on a sticky thread somewhere on the front of the forum

Actually it is, in the 'Read This First' thread. First question.

[EDIT: my bad - it says there won't be a pdf, but it doesn't say why. Maybe it should.]

Sigh... FFG isn't allowed to do PDFs for Star Wars due to license restrictions. Period, end of story. It has nothing to do with Piracy (as is shown by the fact that they sell PDFs to other RPGs that they make). PDFs are considered electronic gaming material, and so fall under a license for computer games (which means more money to spend to get the rights). Hence why they aren't doing it.

Ahh, didn't know this was the case. Thanks for the clearing it up Kall. Still sucks that there won't be PDF's unless they pony up the extra money, but at least there's a good legit reason.