How can I automatically crop scanned book-cover images in bulk?
Asked 11/17/2010
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2 answers
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I’m scanning a large number of book covers, and although my HP scanner often auto-sizes them, many scans still have extra white or gray borders on the sides. What’s a good way to automate cropping these images in bulk? Are there tools or workflows that can trim borders automatically, and possibly straighten or split multiple covers from one scan?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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ImageMagick, using the -trim operator. See: http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/crop/#trim.
ImageMagick is free (and open source), and you can get pre-built binaries for Mac OS, Windows, or Unix from http://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php .
Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. A few common tools can automate this well:
- ImageMagick: its
-trimoption is specifically useful for removing uniform border areas from scans. It’s free, open source, and works well for batch processing. - Photoshop: File > Automate > Crop and Straighten Photos can automatically crop and deskew scanned covers. If you scan multiple covers at once, it can also split them into separate files. For large batches, you can combine this with Actions/Batch processing.
- IrfanView: if full automation isn’t reliable enough, it offers a very fast semi-manual workflow for stepping through many images, cropping, saving, and moving to the next file.
If your borders are consistently plain white/gray, ImageMagick is usually the simplest bulk solution. If scans vary in angle or include multiple covers per scan, Photoshop’s crop-and-straighten feature is more capable. In practice, fully automatic cropping works best when the background around the cover is clean and consistent.
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