CZUR ET24Pro - Easy 320DPI Book Scanning 

For context on the Nabu, this video was recorded nearly two weeks ago now before I knew that software had been preserved for the system and that there was hope to get it working again. It had also been a running joke in my Twitch streams that getting the Nabu working would be nearly impossible. That is no longer the case so my comments here no longer reflect the bigger picture of the system now.

Thanks for the followup video on the ET24 Pro. When you did the original ET18 video I was sufficiently impressed that I ordered the ET24 Pro. The product has exceeded my expectations, though the software has some shortcomings--I will do the best to summarize my experience in this rather lengthy post. I bought this mainly to digitize a vast collection of sheet music collected by my wife and I over the decades. We have thousands of pages of sheet music that we would prefer to have digitized, searchable, and available on our iPads. A secondary need is making digital copies of old magazines before recycling them. These aren't precious historical relics, so I would like to have copies for my use before I pitch them and clean out our house. The hardware is where this product shines. I have very few complaints to make about the device. Even the packaging is top-notch, providing a convenient storage case when not in use. A tiny quibble: given a choice, I would like a 1/4" jack for the foot switch, like most musical instruments use, so that I could use any pedal of my choice, such as a Boss foot pedal--the provided pedal is flimsy and will likely need to be replaced some day. The camera resolution is perfect for my needs. I don't save 320DPI files since I don't want my old magazines to take 200MB per file. Nevertheless, this scanning resolution means that when I knock it down to 150DPI the software has the best source material for downsampling and the OCR has a fighting chance when scanning yellowed photocopies from 1975. They use Abbyy's OCR engine, a mature product I have used for years in various forms, and it shows. Very good OCR. Much of the music I scan is from Brazil, and it is neat how the OCR captures both Portuguese and English with ease. One of the best features of the software is the way that it seamlessly handles double-page scans. The contour laser feature works much better than I expected, and the handling of page pairs is well designed. Even if one page is messed up, when I use the "retake" option the software correctly replaces both pages once I am satisfied. This replace-page feature works perfectly even if you change modes (e.g. single page or custom). Very well done. My complaints with the (MacOS) software are all workflow-based: it really feels like the software developers did not ever use the product for a day. They should remember that one reason people buy this product is to very quickly scan hundreds of pages--the software should not hold our hands like a baby for the duration. There are multiple "confirm" dialogs that have no business intruding in a smooth workflow. For example, when I finish a book I select all of the pages and click the trash can. The software confirms that I want to delete (should be able to disable this confirmation), then when I click "Confirm" it deletes the files and shows a pointless popup saying that it did the work and making me confirm again. I would suggest the designers go through and count how many unnecessary mouse clicks are needed to scan a book or scan a stack of short documents. The software does not remember many settings on the various batch processing steps, forcing me to click all over the place for each thing I scan. For example, I postprocess sheet music by setting page to "US Letter", "Portrait", and "150 DPI". Even though I just did that for the prior document, I have to select those three settings without mistake for the next document. The software would benefit greatly from letting me save a set of batch processing settings as a custom configuration with its own button. If that is too complex to implement, then at least make every single dialog box remember the prior settings, even after the application restarts. When I export to searchable PDF, some of the options are retained (e.g. language), while others aren't (quality). Again, it is frustrating to have to remember to set these correctly for each save. Some less-used features are quite clunky. If you make a mistake in order of your scans, there is a tedious and error-prone reordering mechanism only available in the "export to PDF" step. Best advice: don't mess up the order. We really ought to be able to drag/drop the scanned pages in the right order, but that isn't supported. If you did miss pages (e.g. pages stuck together), be sure to use the "add" or "insert" options at the point of insertion to ensure the new scans go in at the right place. With regards to usage, some things I found: For black pages or black-bordered pages, I have a piece of 1/8" Plexiglass that I keep at the ready to lay on top of the page. I then use the "custom" scan option and select the page with the mouse. This is fairly fast and accurate. When scanning sheet music, I switch from the finger cots to my own fingers--there is a setting in the details for the "two page" mode button. Since I am doing black-and-white scans of white pages, this works very well, and I don't have to faff about with the finger cots. When scanning color pages, such as magazines, the finger cot mode is essential. I ended up buying some of those little tubs of waxy stuff that cashiers use when counting new bills--it saves me from licking my fingers all the time during a scanning session.

Scanning is something I've been getting into a lot recently. I was thinking about the early days of color printers and scanners. I have a half brother who got arrested for trying to duplicate money with them while in high school when they were new. He's a character.

Love the little NABU cameo in that BYTE scan...

RMC had one of these yesterday.. You archivists keep up the good work 👍

It's awesome that in your own way you're able to "share" your collection to the greater world, instead of just sitting on the books and software like some digital Smaug.

Amazingly relevant with the bit on the NABU computer. Also I wouldn't scan blank pages.

I think this is going to be my big purchase next year. There's been enough positive videos about it that I know aren't just random people hired to make a video that I feel comfortable buying one.

Nice insight to using this device! And I like your comments about setting it up for Linux! For me that's the most important aspect and I appreciate CZUR's efforts to supporting LInux 100% at some time in the future! That's great!

Your channel is so interesting and your videos are actually educational, I’m glad I found you.

The way we scanned things at work was to have the books (old ass, relic books) half opened, with pieces of non glossy glass on the pages to push the pater flat (wasn't hard, the books weren't fully opened to not ruin the spine) and then have a dslr on a tripod, aimed squarely on the paper. Lights at a steep angle as to not create reflections or speculars.

Thanks, this was very helpful. I own the scanner but haven't used it quite some time, so I wanted a refresher. I also learned some new things! Appreciated!

Haha love the hint you put in the video about the nabo. Have one coming myself. Can’t wait for DJ sures to put his code for the server online :-). Then again my nabo hasn’t arrived yet.

Love how you “magically” flipped to that NABU article. I just learned about it’s existence because of Adrian’s video on one of those strange Canadian NABU computers and cable service. I’m assuming you flipped to that page on purpose, if not that’s a pretty strange coincidence.

Great show. Another feather is the beeper when you turn the pages, letting you know the shot was taken.

I wanted to give you a tip on scanning dark or black pages. When I used the white of the book I had to crop every page which is very time consuming. So I bought a piece of white poster board. Then I cut it down into useable pieces that was approximately as 2-3 inches wider and taller than the largest book I scanned. I would place the poster board approximately 10 pages or so pages behind the page you are scanning. I also put the poster board as close to the binding as possible (with at least 2-3 inches taller than the page and 2-3 inches hanging over the edge (width) of the page. It helped tremendously to make better automatic cropping of the pages. Hope this makes sense and helps others. Take care.

Outstanding review, answered many questions. It appears to be definitely worth the money.

Nice video of a great piece of tech. But what's really stuck with me from this is you mentioning Galaktikon. Didn't know about that album, checked it out, turns out you have an excellent taste in music! THANK YOU!!

Galaktikon ref got me.

Been wanting to see this video for a while, and got surprised to see another fellow Brendon Small fan! Nice video keep up the good work and see you on twitch!

This thing is amazing.

LOL had to take a dig at the NABU

I love visiting with Shelby

Take a drink of your favorite beverage every time you hear the word 'ACTUALLY'.

Couldn't finish Galakton and get to Galakton II so convenient!

Did you just happen to find a Byte article about the hottest retro topic these days? The Nabu system.

Other issue that they seem to have solved is the "yellow shadow" that still was (barely) seeable in the other model from those "page holding things". I think the software is the star in this product. It looks very well made.

Thanks for convincing me to get this.

CZUR must be really shelling out for all these retro-tech channels to be accepting sponsored content.

Thanks! Awesome Review!

I wish I could rent one of those for a weekend. There are a few dozen magazines I would love to create a PDF of.

What a cute little toy. I am saying that because i am working in national library, using professional scanners like Image Access Bookeye 5 and 4 (making 60 000+ scans per year). We are also using Zeutschel OS 12002 that has a image correction stuff but it doesn't work because it is crashing Zeutschel proprietary software. At least Image Access scanners have API. I am going to say this that Zeutschel scanner don't have good quality scans because their head with lenses is really far from the bed. In that case Image Access quality is superior. I think this scanner is fine for more non-professional or non-archival scanning.

Of course you find a way to tell people not to buy a nabu

Ironically while you were showing off the quality of the OCR at 24:15 and the lack of OCR typos, the manual itself has a typo in the bottom paragraph. The manual reads "Thd odds are high" instead of "The odds are high".

Wow, thanks for that random Byte review column. I was thinking of picking up one of those NABU things, and apparently, it's not going well for the company. That's good to know. It would be a right brick without the service behind it, eh?

How well does this capture non-book items like populated PCB's? Been doing some non-invasive RE of obsolete hardware and it's tough as nails to get good photos of large boards for following traces.

Thks

Great vid thanks!

So any reason why you didn't pick the "loading instructions" section of the manual for the more complicated formatting example of the OCR? It couldn't be because it failed there, right?

Funny how the HDMI live video feed could be used to turn the scanner into a modern overhead projector that doesn't require transparency. I'm not sure why you would want to do that, but I believe people could figure out some niche use cases.

We've got an ET18 Pro, and while the hardware is pretty good (price debatable) the software is just...serviceable. Rather buggy & clunky all around, and the program doesn't even scale when I opened it on a 4:3 monitor lol. I also think it's somewhat of a shame to have that buggy software tied to a serial number like it's 2001 or something. Used it to scan 30 old Micropolis/Vector Graphics newsletters for upload last week, certainly faster & more convenient than any flatbed at least.

Nice product

I just wish CZUR would release Linux drivers for their earlier book scanners. The lack of Linux drivers is pretty much the only reason my Aura is currently sitting half forgotten in storage.

I recently came into possession of an ET16 with glitching behaviour. Though I was quite surprised to see it having a hdmi port, in contrast to your ET18pro not having one. I have it opened up now and the main pcb has an onboard sd card slot, not accessible from the outside and pads for what seem to be a rs232-esque serial interface. there is also the microphone which seems a bit odd for a device that is made to scan books and a button which is also not accesible from the outside. Kinda guessing I screwed up some alignment as well by removing the main pcb. oh well. troubleshooting it is ! The sd card only seems to contain some random data and a few alignment photos of a book and a dotted page.

Honestly I'd just like to get something like this for streaming card games like MTG. Their other scanners like the Shine Ultra Pro have a similar sensor but don't have as large of a capture area. Would be much better than a simple deck-clamp gooseneck holding a webcam.

What happens if you connect the foot switch to a pc? Is it like a keyboard with just one key, controller, mouse, or just it's own thing?

Haha, Adrian's Digital Basement just did an eppisode on the nabu. What a coincidence.

i seen two other youtubers using this and I think they didn't know how to do the video capture stuff with the scanner

Now I'm looking into getting one of these or a bookedge scanner. I want to scan an old game guidebook but can't on my Epson V600 or Canoscan 9000f because their bezels are too big, I'd have to de-spine it to scan it. I don't want to do that. I'll have to ask my local library about using their scanner for archiving it.

Thanks for the video. It's very hard to compare these on Czur's website. OCR wasn't perfect though, it confused a comma with a period in the third line of the introduction, around "longer".

Would this kind of tech work well for creating prints with real flower layouts for prints? And can one use a different background colour (eg white) for such a process?

I'm curious how the OCR does with mathematics and some alternative formatting. That's been one frustrating aspect of searching for digitized textbooks of old... very little has been OCR'd.

Love this scanner,but the software needs improvements.Have had several issues running it on my Mac Studio .There support is great,It would be nice if they polished the software .The OCR is great but could use some improvements.

Please, what is the measurement of the pad + the scanner from back to front? It looks a very large footprint. Thanks.

"Thd odds" @24:25 ? Come on, TRS! Why am I like this 😐

would you recommend using a scanner like this for someone who doesn't want to unbind their books. I have a flatbed scanner but it's not great for stuff that's not completely flat, I'm trying to scan some rare and extremely obscure books and I'd rather not damage them or unbind them at all. thanks in advance

16:00 I must assume you did NOT pick that NABU computer news story at random, right? 😏

I think I said the same thing about the previous model but it still has one major flaw that is super important for me and others who digitize more fragile books. And that is the fact that you have to lay it down flat. This can damage the spine of the book. For things like magazines and other stapled stuff this is not a problem but thicker books should not be used. It's a shame because both the hardware and the software seems really good. Maybe the manufacturer could make some kind of cradle for it that still works with the software.

Not sure if Seizure is a great company name.

What is 'Galacticon'?

Is the actual computing this entails taking place on a CPU built into the actual scanner, or does it use the PC's CPU? If the latter, what are the system requirements for a good experience (RAM, CPU, etc.)?

Looks pretty good, but $400 is at least $100 too much for me. I think I'll add homebrew book scanner to my project list. Though it sounds like the software would be the most difficult aspect of it. I do know there are a few open source OCR libraries, but correcting skew is not so easy.

Which Windows operating systems does this run on?

The CZUR site says "Handles content measuring up to 18.89” x 14.17” and up to 1.96” thick". If I have a book where two pages side-by-side (i.e. open book) exceed those dimensions, can I still use this to scan the book one page at a time? What if the thickness is greater than 1.96"?

10:50 so in other words for scoring, shift the butt shaped key 🤣

pretty cool. But I cannot afford that price tag.

No robot to turn the pages? How can money counting machines flip bills so easily, but no machine to auto turn the pages?

But does it cross the rubicon river? Lol. Dad jokes.

Eveybody in the tech space seems to have gotten these recently, and the company has yet to tell anyone how to pronounce their dang name.

Very minor differences in scan quality: AMAZING! MUCH BETTER! BECAUSE MORE DPI! But seriously, your other videos are good but this one is.... Well not so good and definitely not unbiased.

I had the Czur ET18Pro and I definitely do not recommend it! Don't buy Czur ET24Pro either! Why? Because scans are saved only in JPG format and with lossy compression. This has a negative impact on the image quality and is too noticeable. I wrote a complaint to CZUR and they did not respond. Czur? Tfu!

did you get a spine :)

Second

First?

please trim your nails before taking shots of hands, it's disgusting to see uncut nails and dirt underneath.

A heads up: When following your link to CZUR's site, the CZURTang promo code returns a "Enter a valid discount code" error. It was accepted a couple days ago, but not anymore. The 5% promo code they advertise for signing up for their email list also doesn't work.

Good grief, I've watched like 5 people this week unbox this stupid thing...

Must say most of the text on the HDMI output capture of the Byte magazine was very readable watching the video on a mobile phone. The small text was a bit to small but overall very impressive output quality.

If you are scanning books' The Plustek Opticbook 4800 (which is a flatbed scanner) is actually faster than the CZUR when the whole job is taken into view. The Plustek actually takes 8 seconds per page (which is advertised as 3.5) but requires no extra processing. As for curvature, the Plustek scans all the way to one edge of the glass (which is where you place the binding and can handle a 800 page thick book just fine. And there is no secondary processing required for perfectly undistorted scans. It took over 10 videos to figure out how to use the CZUR workflow and it still requires third party SW to clean up the distortions which negates any advertised speed advantages. To scan 60 page magazines required placing a sheet of glass over the magazine to flatten it and also required using side lights to avoid the glare from the overhead lamps in the glass. The stapled binding of the magazine is much worse than a book binding for creating non-linear distortions. If you dont care about scan quality, the CZUR is ok and fastish. If you want good scan quality, the Plustek is actually faster, even at 8 seconds per page. The Plustek does has a major problem with buggy SW which forced me to scan in 60 page sections due to random SW lockups killing the entire scan up to that point) (and Yes I was running a high end engineering workstation with ECC memory as the host for both).

630 bucks?! You're kidding, right? The quality of the captured materials is extremely blurry. For that kinda cash, you could snag a Fujitsu-Ricoh ScanSnap SV600, not just a webcam with a stand and a flashlight. Even better, just grab your phone from your pocket, take a shot of the same book with decent side lighting, and process the image using the open-source ScanTailor without spending a dime. Yeah, it's not as convenient, but the quality will be way better.

Hi so im looking to scan beano annual hard back cover now this item is out of my price range as i have finance on my computer build is there a flatbed scanner that would be ok to use for those types hardback cover comics, I would love this but honestly i have no plans other than to scan the 70 hardback cover backs i have then never scan anything again so something like this would not be a future investment

Thank you❣️ great video