Each option, explained.
Standard or glossy?
The first split. Most novels and academic books are standard. Magazines, cookbooks and most textbooks are glossy — the page is coated, often shiny, sometimes squeaks under your finger.
No coating. This is the paper type of most novels, biographies, and academic and historical books. It is the default for most printed books.
Glossy paper is often found in magazines, cookbooks and text books. It is often shiny, smooth and reflective. Holds ink crisply for photography but needs different scan settings.
Diagrams or vivid imagery?
For glossy books only. If a book is full of cooking shots, travel photography or saturated illustration, it goes in the Photos & Vivid pile. If it’s a textbook with charts and line art, it’s Text & Diagrams.
This option is for glossy books that do not contain any photos or vivid images. They may contain simple charts or diagrams. Text books often fall into this category.
This option is for glossy books that contain photos and/or vivid images. Cook books, travel books, reference books and magazines often fall into this category.
New or old. B&W or colour.
Think of this as a hierarchy. If pages are yellowing or torn, pick that — even if the book also has colour. Otherwise: anything in colour → colour. Otherwise → B&W/Greyscale.
Plain white pages, black text. The most common choice for modern novels and academic books.
Same option and price as B&W. These contain shades of grey, usually pictures or photographs, but may also be text boxes and graphs as well.
These usually contain either colourful photographs or pictures such as this one, or the writing itself may be in colour.
Older books, age-darkened paper and/or tears.
Regular or higher?
Regular is plenty for everyday reading, searching and archiving — and is suitable for all text-only books. Higher resolution is for graphic-heavy books, anything you plan to project on a wall, or pages you’d like to print at scale. Skip higher resolution if the book is yellowing — it just amplifies the discoloration.
More than enough for most books. Suitable for all text-only books.
For graphic content, projection, or print reproduction.
PDF — and what else?
Every scan ships as a searchable PDF (OCR included, no extra charge). The mirror of your book, exactly as it looked. You can add other formats per set if you need them.
The result of every scan — a mirror of your book. OCR runs by default so every word is searchable.
Editable conversion of the PDF. Best for continuous prose like novels. We’d recommend a proofread.
One image per page. Useful if you need to drop pages into other documents or presentations.
When do you need it?
Standard turnaround is 10–12 working days from arrival. Any of three rush tiers will jump you up the queue.
10–12 working days
From arrival
From arrival
On arrival or next morning