from Hacker News

Show HN: Our weekend project – PaperSync, notebook scanning as a service

by bdm on 4/21/14, 4:52 PM with 30 comments

  • by micheljansen on 4/21/14, 5:54 PM

    Cool idea, but your sample (https://www.papersync.co/static/PaperSync_sample.pdf) isn't really selling it. The resolution is a lot lower than I would expect and there are JPEG artefacts all over the place. If the sample really is representative, I suggest looking into improving the output quality. I doubt you built a "fast, hi-res, scanning setup that uses DSLR’s and some other neat hardware & software" just so you could deliver low-res over-compressed PDFs.

  • by y-apply on 4/21/14, 5:09 PM

    Neat idea and bravo on quick execution.

    But did you ever see these guys?

    http://modnotebooks.com/

  • by bdm on 4/21/14, 4:53 PM

    OP here: I spent a few days working with ssong last week to create papersync.co -- a service where we scan paper notebooks and turn them into .pdf’s.

    We both carry notebooks around to jot down ideas in pen & ink.

    After doing this for some odd years, the downside is that they take up physical space, and we have no digital backup.

    We were frustrated that the best solution out there was to spend a few hours scanning them ourselves - we couldn’t find any service that would save time & do this for us.

    In typical HN style, we built a fast, hi-res, scanning setup that uses DSLR’s and some other neat hardware & software. We built a simple website in 3 days to offer this as a service to all the beautiful people of the world.

    We’d love to hear your thoughts on this service and how well we are presenting it on our site. What could we be doing better?

  • by sciguy77 on 4/21/14, 5:15 PM

    Didn't Need/Want start a Kickstarter project and then a company around this?

  • by niels_olson on 4/21/14, 10:04 PM

    Hi, this is awesome! I would like to see a sample in 0.3 mm B pencil lead. I have pretty much given up on evernote because I don't have time to do this in bulk (a solution you provide) but if I do it ad hoc with my phone camera the quality is terrible (you probably provide the required quality, but I would like to confirm...)

    I use 9x5 moleskine, grid ruled, same as your existing sample. But could you please just post a couple pages with different writing utensils? Colored inks (orange, light green, etc) and common leads (0.5 mm HB lead of course, and 0.3 mm B and HB leads). If you need a sample page, I can make one up.

  • by ds9 on 4/21/14, 8:19 PM

    I have a pile of notebooks that need to get into my computer somehow - but images won't help. I would pay for OCR, but AFAIK the technology today is not yet good enough for accurate image-to-text from handwriting.

  • by jessmartin on 4/21/14, 6:45 PM

    Awesome! I have been waiting for a service like this! I especially wanted a non-destructive scan. It's important to me to get my notebook back. I've priced other services. $20/notebook is not bad.

    Can you let me know the DPI on the scan? I will ship you 10 notebooks tomorrow if the DPI is good enough.

  • by itazula on 4/22/14, 12:18 AM

    This reminded me of something called "Shot Note" which is used to digitally store and organize handwritten notes: http://www.kingjim.co.jp/sp/shotnote/english/

  • by hobonumber1 on 4/21/14, 6:05 PM

    I like the hand-drawn animations on your landing page! Did you guys make those yourselves?

  • by evolve2k on 4/21/14, 11:37 PM

    My immediate reaction was 'backup sure, but what if they loose my valuable notebook in the mail? I think to address this you should state clearly that all notebooks are to be sent and returned by registered (tracked) post.

  • by nubela on 4/21/14, 5:08 PM

    $20 per notebook is a bit on the expensive side, imo.