Image Capture

The quality of the images has a dramatic affect on all aspects of form processing.

To increase processing performance, try the following:

• Increase the resolution (300 DPI is a good minimum and 400 DPI is often better).
• Adjust the brightness or use an automatic setting.
• Different scanners may provide different results.

Image Enhancement

When enhancing images, it is important to remember that the term "enhancement" is subjective. An enhancement that makes an image look good may reduce the identification accuracy. For example, changing the brightness or contrast may produce a better-looking image, but can easily reduce identification accuracy. It may also reduce the effectiveness of drop-out and OMR.

Enhancements to Possibly Avoid

• Brightness
• Contrast
• Shade Removal

Enhancements to Consider

• Scanner - The best place to start improving the quality of the images is at the scanner. If that is not possible or doesn't help enough, use the ScanFix's powerful image enhancement capabilities.
• Deskew - Template images should be deskewed if possible. While deskew is not necessary for filled forms, if they are commonly skewed, deskewing them before sending them to identification can improve accuracy and reduce processing time.
• Cropping - another enhancement to consider is cropping. If images have a large border, removing it may improve identification.
• Line Removal - When bubbles are bounded by lines, OMR improvement can be achieved if line removal is performed on the image as bounding grouped boxes for the bubbles may interfere with bubble identification.

Image Resolution

One of the most common causes for identification failure, is missing or inaccurate image resolutions.

Possible causes of this are:

• The file format.
• The method used to load images from disk.
• The method used to transfer images into FormFix. Several common image-editing packages do not correctly store the resolution in the file.

An IdentificationProcessor relies heavily on the resolution of both the templates and filled forms. If the resolution of the images is incorrect or missing, identification usually fails. If the resolution of your images is incorrect, you can correct it after importing it into FormFix by using the resolution properties of the FormImage object.