1. Using the FormAssist application, create Form Set(s) to define templates and processing instructions for any images you want to process.
2. Create input and output directories:
   1. Place images to be processed in the InputDirectory.
   2. After processing, the results are placed in the OutputDirectory.
3. In a Command window, start the Forms Processing Server. Use the syntax:
   
   ConsoleFormsProcessingServer.exe FormSetFileName InputDirectory OutputDirectory [-singlethreaded] [-donotsortoutput]

4. When the server starts, it creates four subdirectories under the OutputDirectory:
   1. Success -  Form Images and XML Results for form images that were identified and processed without error.
   2. ProcessedImages - Original images from the Input directory.
   3. FailedIdentification - Form Images that could not be identified successfully.
   4. ProcessingError - Form images and XML results for form images that were identified successfully but failed in the processing phase.

As the server processes the images in the InputDirectory, the output results are placed into one of the four OutputDirectory subdirectories (described above).

How the Forms Processing Server Processes Images

1. If the form set specifies it, the unknown image will be enhanced using ScanFix Xpress:

Typical processing operations you might require at this stage includes deskew, border removal, and despeckle. These operations will help FormFix to match the unknown image to a form template. The image resulting from ScanFix Xpress operations is the "Enhanced Image".

2. FormFix uses the properties from the Identify Properties in the form set (see image above in step 1). The identification process will result in a match to a form template, or no match:

• If a match is found, the form template information in the form definition file is used to continue processing the filled image. But, if no match is found, processing of this image stops at this point.
• As part of the identification process, the filled-in image is aligned with the form template, resulting in the aligned image.
• Fields that are defined in the form template are used on the aligned image to extract a smaller clipped image of the field for further processing.
• Form dropout is typically applied to the image clip to remove the template form content and leave only the filled-in information, or the clip may be processed without dropout, based on the dropout settings stored in the form set. Additional ScanFix Xpress enhancements may then be applied to the image clip to further assist in recognition accuracy.

3. Finally, ICR, OCR, OMR and/or Barcode processing are performed on the fields to extract filled-in form data:

• For ICR and OCR fields, SmartZone ICR or SmartZone OCR uses the appropriate ICR or OCR properties of that field as defined in the form definition file.
• For OMR fields, FormFix uses the OMR properties for that field as defined in the form definition file.
• For Barcode fields, Barcode Xpress uses the Barcode properties for that field, as defined in the form definition file.