In a method for scanning a book including a plurality of pages, a property of the plurality of pages is measured between a plurality of points on the top of the book and a plurality of points on the bottom of the book to generate a plurality of data values. The plurality of data values are grouped into a plurality of levels corresponding to the plurality of pages. A determination is made for each of the plurality of the points at each of the plurality of levels whether ink is present. Pixel data is generated, indicative of one of the presence or absence of ink at each of the plurality of points for each of the plurality of levels. An image is generated using the pixel data for each of the plurality of levels.