DIY Book Digitization System: Camera Rig + OCR App to Capture and Review

Tired of manually retyping book content or dealing with bulky scanners?

This project shows you how to build a DIY camera rig combined with Book Digitizer Suite—a free, open-source app and all-in-one local solution for book digitization: scan/capture pages, OCR extraction, human validation, and export-ready cleaned texts.

Perfect for:

- Digitizing personal libraries

- Extracting text from documents

- Creating searchable archives

- Offline processing (no cloud needed)

Combine a simple camera rig with AI-powered OCR to scan and extract

text from books in minutes—not hours.

Supplies (Hardware)

1. iPhone (any recent model, Android should work but didn't tested)
2. Camera tripod (≈$30-50)
3. USB powered LED ring light (≈$10-30)
4. USB-C cable (to connect iPhone to Mac)
5. MacBook Pro or any Mac/Linux computer
6. Books to digitize!

Supplies (Software)

1. Book Digitizer Suite (free, GitHub: github.com/spacecharly/bookdigitizer-suite)
2. Runs on macOS, Linux, or Docker
3. Includes:
4. Capture Companion app (browser-based camera) to scan the pages
5. Voice-triggered photo capture
6. AI-powered OCR (PaddleOCR, locally)
7. Built-in spell checker support (LanguageTool, Chrome extension)
8. Real-time text editing & corrections

1. Mount iPhone on tripod (use phone holder)

2. Position LED ring light above/around iPhone

3. Adjust angle to minimize glare on book

4. Connect iPhone to Mac via USB-C cable

Download the latest release on: github.com/spacecharly/bookdigitizer-suite

Detailed and easy to follow instructions are given in the README.md file.

You may watch the introduction videos do get familiar with the app setup and options.

Option A (Easy): Use Docker

$ docker-compose up

Option B (Manual): Install Python + dependencies

App will open at http://localhost:5001

Optional but recommended:

1. Install LanguageTool as a Chrome extension (free) for spelling corrections after OCR.
2. The app works best on Chrome Browser, it's highly recommended to install and use it for this project.

1. From the main app, click on: "Open Capture App"
2. Companion opens in a new tab in browser (choose iPhone camera via USB or any listed and connected to your computer camera)
3. Chose either One- or Two-page mode capture (Two-page mode output two distinct images left + right separately)
4. Position book under camera
5. Use rotation buttons if needed
6. Enable voice trigger (optional, say "next" to capture, with audio and visual feedback)
7. Frame book pages in the preview
8. Say "next"
9. Photos save automatically to working folder

1. Go back to the main OCR Quick Compare App
2. Choose the image you want to work on
3. Select the right OCR language for your book
4. Generate OCR by clicking on the "Paddle OCR" button
5. Wait for the text to be produced
6. Fix OCR errors directly in text editor (typos, accents, etc.), optionnaly with the LanguageTool free Chrome extension if activated
7. Spell checker helps (LanguageTool integration)
8. Export as CSV, JSON, or individual text files
9. Ready for further processing or e-books
10. Once you are happy with the text, you can click on the button "Validate & Next"

Enjoy!