CZUR Aura Pro Book Scanner A3 Scanner Portable Document Scanner for Books & Documents, Fast OCR Overhead Scanner for Mac & Windows, Cost-Effective Office & Home Use

Excellent innovative scanning device, beautifully packaged and designed, everything enclosed that's required. Beats trying to scan items like paperback books on a standard printer / scanner device.

Great peice of kit with great, intuitive software. After a few trial scans, I'm au fait with the settings. You need to set the DPI setting to maximum and use the side lights (rather than the main scanner light) to get the optimum results.

Way better than I expected. Faster than a domestic flat-bed scanner. Whether you can scan a book or not really depends on the spine. As the scans are only for me, I got thin black gloves and hold the books open and use the foot-pedal. This improved on using my fingers which often resulted in my hand(s) being scanned too, resulting in a lot of post editing. One hard lesson - is never to use the powerful editing tools supplied - on your original scans - there is no "undo". I bought the version with the battery. This enabled my working with the laptop in the garden shed where there is no power for the odd hour (over Christmas). Note that the unit can topple over when used on a rickety table. The base is undercut so the mat can be tucked underneath. But the undercutting goes all the way around the unit base instead of being restricted to just the front (where it is needed) creating an unnecessary instability.

Have scanned dozens of books with this - as an academic looking to convert parts of my library to portable PDF, this was a good buy

I had to return this. The packaging is as impressive as people say. I found the interface ok, maybe could have been easier but none too challenging (my IT skills are limited). I bought this to copy pictures from various history books but the quality of the photo taken was so poor I compared it to just taking a photo with my iphone camera and the latter was better. I tried two different rooms and types of light. I tried turning on the mini-lights halfway up the stand, all with the same disappointing result. I tried tech support, they replied quickly but with very standard advice (try another room with more light), didn't feel like they had really engaged with the problem. Was I just doing it wrong? We'll never know and as we (including me) have decided as a society to buy everything online we have no shop to pop into to give us a demo.

I feel misled by the marketing of this device. As someone who has spent years working with professional-grade imaging hardware, including Agfa and Hell drum scanners as well as various high-end flatbeds, I can say with confidence: the Czur Aura Pro is NOT a scanner. It is a camera on a stand with very primitive software. The Software Delivery (An Absolute Joke) For a £300 device in the current era, providing software on a CD is unacceptable. Most modern computers haven't had disc drives for over a decade. I was forced to buy an external CD drive just to access the installer, only to find I still had to download a newer version from the internet anyway. To make matters worse, the software is poorly optimized—my system froze for long periods during both the installation and when saving files. For £300, the company should include a £2 USB stick compatible with modern hardware. This device does not function like a true scanner. In a real scanner, you have control over the optical capture. Here, the software doesn't control the hardware; it simply takes a photo and then applies post-processing filters (B&W, color, "stamp," etc.). The promises on paper do not match the reality of the performance. Performance and Usability While this might be a "solution" for someone who needs quick, low-quality snapshots of documents without adjusting parameters, it fails to meet the standards of anyone who understands imaging. The software is cumbersome, and the "automation" feels like a thin veneer over a very basic camera setup. Verdict: 3 stars I'm returning the CD player I had to buy. I'm furious because I've been so disappointed with both the software CD and the online update work software. I thought I could scan in PDF, JPEG, TIFF, etc., but it's not working. I have to spend several extra hours to save everything as a PDF, for example. Yes, I'm disappointed and frustrated. Do I now have to buy new software to save these JPEGs to PDF in bulk?