

Show HN: Ptrfy, simple textbook digitization - breathesalt
http://www.ptrfy.com

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koopajah
Apart from the flat rate how are you different from <http://1dollarscan.com>
or <http://www.bookscan.co.jp> ?

You indicate that you only support PDF for now, do you plan to support other
formats? If so, how will you handle previous orders like if I pay for a scan
now, can I hope to obtain a MOBI version for my Kindle when you offer it?

I love the ability to order from Amazon and deliver it to you.

The price kinds of puts me of a bit, 12$ seems ok if I have for example a
technical book but for a novel it seems really too high.

~~~
breathesalt
First, thank you for the feedback; your comment about Amazon was very
validating. The pricing model and payment mode (Gumroad) encapsulate and
foreshadow a lot about what Ptrfy is focusing on. At $12, we're clearly not
going to _"Make Everything Digital For All Book Lovers"_ (1dollarscan's
slogan), but we do want to make buying _eTextbooks_ more simple, affordable,
and social for those who need them the most, such as college students and
technical professionals. We will be experimenting with different formats in
the future, but I wouldn't hold my breath, especially if it meant we would
have to compete against Amazon. I'll have to think more about how much of a
priority offerring PDF-to-X conversions for past customers is, so good
question. PDFs are well-suited for use on desktop OSes, which is where many if
not most technical professionals and students do their eTextbook reading.
Nonetheless, iPads and Android tablets handle PDFs well enough, but rarely do
I read technical literature other than mathematics on my iPad, because tablets
are much better suited for casual mathematics notes.

~~~
koopajah
I agree with you on ease to read on iPad/tablet. But for programming stuff I
read a lot on my Kindle when I'm on the move or when I'm tired to sit in front
of my computer screen and even if it opens PDF the rendering is never as good
as the MOBI version. But I can understand it not being a priority for now.

One other concern : If someone buys a book, you digitalize it and destroy it
in the process. Now if someone else order the same book a week later, do you
digitalize it again or do you detect it's already been digitalized before and
send the previous version. The latter seems more efficient (but maybe not
legal?) but the former kind of allow you to keep/resell the version bought
previously (which must not be legal from what I understood on your FAQ?).

~~~
breathesalt
Legally, we cannot keep files indefinitely. We do hold on to a file and its
corresponding book material for two weeks after it has been processed for QA
reasons, among others. This rules out file reuse for _us_.

