The FormAssist Desktop Processing workflow represents one of many possible forms processing workflows and should be used primarily to test form sets built using FormAssist.

Prior to processing filled forms, the FormAssist application can be used to create form sets. The following steps describe this process.

Steps to Process Filled Images against Form Sets

1. Create Form Set(s) to define templates and processing instructions for any images you plan to process.
2. Select one or more filled images to process.
   At this point, FormAssist does not know what form the selected image represents.
3. Once selected, FormAssist will follow the instructions provided in the form set to enhance the unknown image 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".
4. The FormFix component in FormSuite uses the properties from the Identify Properties in the form set. 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.
5. Finally, Auto Classifier, ICR, OCR, and OMR are performed on the fields to extract filled-in form data.
   • For Auto Classifier fields, FormFix uses the Auto Classifier properties of the field as defined in the form definition file. The field is analyzed and the result of the classification determines whether the field will be treated as ICR or OCR.
   • For ICR fields, OCR fields, and successful Auto Classified 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.