Foldable book stand for camera scanning

Want to scan books using your camera and tripod? Want to do it again and again in the future? No room for storing bulky book holder for that purpose?
Make a foldable book stand. Only some tape and cardboard boxes are needed.

My project is inspired by this instuctable http://www.instructables.com/id/Bargain-Price-Book-Scanner-From-A-Cardboard-Box/ which describes the general process of scanning well. And it has instructions for the editing on Windows.

In summary: to scan books using camera, you need:
1. camera
2. tripod
3. desk lamp
4. sheet of glass (size of page or bigger)
5. some suitable book stand
6. time and patience to edit images and combine them to PDF

This instructable is about nr 5. The stand makes the process easier and results better than they would be when done simply on tabletop.

The most time consuming part at first is the editing, but it will shrink with practice. BUT note that setting up the software for editing is not the easiest one click process - be prepared to mess around for a while.

I hope to soon publish an instructable about image editing and making PDF on Linux operating system. (Oops, couldn't repeat the process of installing all the tools on thumb drive linux - don't know if they are currently available at all or not - better let it wait until I get (for some reason) a clean install desktop system...)

Step 1: You need..

For a foldable book stand you will need:

hard cardboard
tape
knife
ruler - triangle with 45 degrees corners is best
pencil
scissors

Comments

[dchall8]

If you want to make your corrugated cardboard stiffer, you can glue it to a second piece of the same size. If you want it really stiff, rotate the corrugation 'grain' to any other direction other than the one you're starting with. 90 degrees is good, of course, but you don't have to be a perfectionist about it. Use white glue and a large book to hold it down while the glue dries. I have some cardboard projects which are 9 layers deep (I needed thickness, not stiffness).

[Libahunt]

Yes, this idea actually may be useful for the leg triangles as they must take some weight. Or all of it if the cardboard is thin.