Cheapest and best way to get a book copied and enlarged?

elsien

Not sure how feasible this is, but here goes.
My nan has a book she is desperate to read again but it's not available in large print. Audio books, kindle etc are not an option, it has to be the printed version (can't find it in audio books anyway.)
I have an ancient lexmark printer - I tried the OCR function but got gibberish. So plan B is to see whether it is possible to photocopy and enlarge it to a more readable size.
Do places like staples offer such a service, or can anyone point me in the direction of a cheaper service. The book is nearly 600 pages, so I'm looking for the cheapest most effective way of doing this.
Thanks

redcard

What's the book?

fwor

I doubt you'll find a cheap option other than DIY, as it will involve a lot of manual handling.

Would she be happy to read on a PC screen? If so, you could scan it yourself and save the images as a .PDF document, which she could then read on-screen with Acrobat (or one of the alternatives) enlarged enough so she can read it.

If you do that, it may be worth printing out some sample pages in different colours, as some people find black on yellow or yellow on black easier to read than black on white, depending on the cause of their sight loss.

DatabaseError

yep - title of the book is a good place to start, I'm not sure of anywhere that will enlarge a complete book, I suspect copyright issues might concern them. At maybe 6p/sheet photocopying is going to be very expensive anyway.
lo-tech solution

esuhl

Two cheap, but cumbersome ideas:

1. Scan each page in on your scanner, then read on-screen in large print.
2. Or... if you have a video camera, you could connect that to a TV, mount it directly above the book, and read the book off the TV.

enigma52

cheapest way is to read it to her, or onto tape

elsien

The book is Katherine by Anya Seton, and nan doesn't do technology (audio cassettes are too high tech for her, so doing her a tape is out.) She's one of those that takes pride in being a technophobe, so I don't think reading it off my laptop or the tv would work, I don't think she'd even contemplate the idea. She has a magnifier but finds reading a large print book easier for some reason concentration and losing her place possibly.
And she wants it to read when she's bored and on her own: I did think about offering to read it to her but when I'm there she'd rather chat - not into making life easy!
A lot of the large print books are around the £20 mark so I thought at 5p a page it would still be affordable and worth doing. I have to be honest, the copyright issue never crossed my mind.

JasX

elsien wrote: »

The book is Katherine by Anya Seton,

2 mins googling reveals the RNIB charity has it available in their library of giant print books for those with dodgy eyesight:

http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/readingwriting/rnibnationallibrary/choosingbooks/booklists/Pages/book_lists_giant_print.aspx

look under historical fiction

it also appears to be free so very MSE too

Fifer

elsien wrote: »

She's one of those that takes pride in being a technophobe, so ...

... won't want to benefit from a technical solution?

(The RNIB solution sounds like the cheapest and best solution with the added benefits of no technology and no copyright issues).

elsien

Brilliant - thank you. I've been through all the large print sites I could find, except the RNIB. Typical.

knightstyle

Ebay has lots of full page magnifiers for around £3 delivered, Christmas present?