Scan Books
Book Scanner App
Scan two pages at once with automatic splitting. Digitize textbooks, journals, and old books twice as fast. The spine alignment guide ensures perfect captures every time.
Scan two pages at once with automatic splitting. Digitize textbooks, journals, and old books twice as fast. The spine alignment guide ensures perfect captures every time.
Scanning books one page at a time is tedious. Flip page, scan, flip page, scan—for a 300-page textbook, that's 300 separate captures. The spine gets in the way. Pages curve near the binding. Text distorts at the center.
A dedicated book scanner app solves these problems. Scan both visible pages in a single capture. The app automatically splits them into separate pages, preserving reading order. What would take hours becomes a matter of minutes.
For students scanning textbook chapters, researchers digitizing journal articles, or anyone preserving old books, a book scanner app transforms an impossible task into a practical one.
Book Scanner mode switches your iPhone to landscape orientation, matching the shape of an open book. The wider field of view captures both pages in a single frame with maximum resolution.
An orange center line on screen shows exactly where to position the book's spine. Aligning the spine with this guide ensures the split happens at the right place—no content lost, no overlap between pages.
After capture, the app detects the spine position and automatically divides the image into left and right pages. The algorithm handles curved pages near the binding, ensuring text remains readable even close to the spine.
Pages are saved in reading order: left page first, then right page. When you scan pages 42-43, they're stored as page 1 (42) and page 2 (43) in your document. The entire book maintains proper sequence.
Books naturally curve near the spine. For best results, gently press on the pages to flatten them before scanning. A book weight or your hand at the top and bottom edges works well. Don't press so hard that you damage the binding.
Even lighting prevents shadows across pages. Natural daylight is ideal. Avoid direct overhead lights that cast shadows from your phone. If scanning at night, use multiple light sources from different angles.
Position your iPhone directly above the book, parallel to the pages. Angled shots create perspective distortion—text appears larger on one side than the other. The app corrects minor angles, but starting parallel gives better results.
For entire textbooks, scan in chapter-sized batches. This keeps documents manageable and lets you pause and resume. A 300-page book becomes 10 documents of 30 pages each, easier to organize and search.
Library textbooks can't leave the building. Scan the chapters you need and study anywhere. OCR makes scanned text searchable—find specific terms, create digital highlights, and build searchable study materials.
Academic journals often exist only in print archives. Scan articles for your research library. With text extraction, you can search across all your scanned papers, finding relevant passages and citations instantly.
Family histories, old cookbooks, out-of-print references—some books are irreplaceable. Scanning preserves them digitally. Create searchable archives of books that exist nowhere else. Share with family or researchers worldwide.
Manuals, catalogs, and reference books contain information you need occasionally but not constantly. Scan the relevant sections. When you need specifications or procedures, search your digital library instead of hunting for the physical book.
Standard document scanning isn't optimized for books. Here's how dedicated book scanning compares:
| Feature | Regular Scanner | Book Scanner Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Pages per Capture | 1 page | 2 pages |
| Scanning Speed | Slow (flip each page) | 2x faster |
| Spine Handling | Gets in the way | Alignment guide |
| Page Order | Manual arrangement | Automatic sequence |
| Curved Pages | Distorted text | Corrected automatically |
After scanning, OCR extracts all text from book pages. Both printed text and clear handwritten notes are recognized. The extracted text is indexed for searching and can be exported for quotes and citations.
Once scanned and processed, your books become searchable. Looking for a specific quote? Search across all scanned books at once. The search finds the exact page containing your term, even in books scanned months ago.
Writing a paper? Select and copy text directly from scanned pages. Paste into your document with proper formatting. No more retyping passages—the scanned text is as usable as native digital text.
Book Scanner mode captures an open book in landscape orientation. Position the book's spine on the orange center line. When you capture, the app automatically splits the image into two separate pages—left page first, then right page—preserving correct reading order throughout your document.
Yes, automatic splitting handles books of any thickness. The spine detection adapts to curved pages near the binding. For best results with very thick books (500+ pages), press gently on the pages to flatten them before scanning. Some users find a book weight helpful.
Yes, OCR text recognition extracts searchable text from all scanned pages. Search specific passages, quotes, or terms across your entire scanned book library. Extracted text can be copied for notes, citations, or research papers.
Any book that can lie reasonably flat works well: textbooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, journals, magazines, old records, and photo albums. Library books with tight bindings may need gentle pressure to flatten pages. Spiral-bound books lie flat naturally and scan excellently.
There's no hard limit on pages per document. However, for very long books, scanning in chapter-sized batches (30-50 pages) is recommended. This keeps documents manageable, allows you to pause and resume, and makes searching and organizing easier.
Download ScanLens free and scan your first book pages in seconds. Two pages at once, automatic splitting, searchable text—transform physical books into a digital library.