CLZ Books version 10 is here! And this big update is all about adding books by ISBN.
Here’s what’s new in the Add Books screen:
- Scan screen now also “reads” actual ISBN numbers using OCR
- New scanning feedback shows where it “sees” a barcode or ISBN number
- Now quickly detects ISBN barcodes and ISBN number in entire scan screen
- Faster online ISBN lookups for most ISBNs
- New “Type ISBN” tab: enter ISBNs manually, use external barcode scanner
Scan screen now also “reads” actual ISBN numbers using OCR
Previously the scan screen could only scan ISBN barcodes, but we have now enhanced the scanning with OCR, so that it also “reads” ISBN numbers that are printed on the book.
Reading ISBN numbers with OCR will be super useful for:
- older books without barcodes, but with an ISBN printed on the cover or on the inside
- books where the barcode on the book is not an ISBN barcode but a UPC barcode. Those UPC barcodes usually have the ISBN number printed above the barcode, which will now be read instead
In the screenshot on the left, it is reading an ISBN printed on the inside of the book. On the right, a screenshot of the app detection both the ISBN barcode AND the ISBN10 that is printed above the barcode.
Here’s a demo video of the new Add by ISBN scan screen in action:
New scanning feedback shows where it “sees” a barcode or ISBN number
The new scan screen give you more feedback on what it is “seeing”. It shows detected barcodes with a red box and red scan line. Detected ISBN numbers are indicated with a green box.
Now quickly detects ISBN barcodes and ISBN number in entire scan screen
Previously, the scan screen detected barcodes only in small area in the center of the scan screen. But we are using a faster scan engine now, that allows it to detect and recognize barcodes and ISBNs in the entire visible camera screen.
This should make it quicker and easier to scan ISBNs or barcodes. Just point your camera in the general direction of the book and it will already “bleep” and add to queue!
Faster online ISBN lookups for most ISBNs
While doing our testing for v10, scanning lots of lots of books, we found that the online lookups for some books were quite slow, sometimes taking 5 seconds or more.
So for the v10 release, we optimized our server side ISBN lookups to make them much faster for most ISBNs.
However, when you scan an ISBN that is not available in Core yet, the online lookup in 3rd party data source may still take a bit longer.
New “Type ISBN” tab
The ability to manually enter ISBNs has been moved to its own sub-tab. This way, you can do manual entry of multiple ISBNs in a row, without having to tap the keyboard icon each time to pop up the entry screen.
Another advantage of the new set-up is that it now fully supports scanning ISBN barcodes with an external USB or bluetooth scanner!
