Skimming is reading for gist, between the lines, in a semi-distracted state. A way to get the main idea of a text quickly, flipping pages, jumping pages with the spacebar, infinitely scrolling. Just like skimming stones, the eyes jump in [saccades](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EY4qI.jpg) over the surface of the text.
Many prefer to read from paper than from a screen. Who has not heard complaints that reading from a screen is tiring, especially when you just want the gist of a text? tl;dr. Sometimes online articles are accompanied by information about how long it will take to read them. Estimated reading time 6 mins. Max word count 400-600 words.
Scanning is reading for particular details such as names and numbers by running one's eyes over every word in a line. Sometimes I find myself using my index finger to guide my eyes when scanning a printed text. With a computer and full-text search capabilities, control-f helps you find instances of a particular word or phrase.
Scanning is also a process of photographing printed matter so that it may be digitally available for manipulation or electronic distribution. For this purpose, a [bookscanner](http://tenrec.builders/archivist-guide.html) is the tool of choice for many archivists. The bookscanner has two cameras, one to capture the odd pages, and one for the even pages. Most bookscanners consist of a system of pulleys which allow the book to be raised to two perpendicular sheets of glass, which will lay the pages flat and ensure the focus is correct. It's quite a workout, and is usually reserved for books which are difficult to find in digital format. Essentially the bookscanner captures two jpegs for each spread, and then these images must go through a variety of processes to produce a digital book. Ultimately, the most useful digital books include a digital text layer generated by OCR (Optical Character Recognition), making the text searchable and copy/pasteable.
