8.0

© 2009 ABBYY. All rights reserved.
10
background color and saturation so that the program can easily remove the background during
scanning. Ideally, only anchors and filled-out data fields are retained after scanning and
despeckling: all other elements must be removed. For this type of processing, you must use a
monochrome scanner with a color lamp (red or green), or a color scanner that has a setting to
allow the background color to be removed.
• Raster forms. To draw character cells, raster forms use dots spaced an equal distance apart. After
scanning, these dots are removed from the image using the “Despeckle” option, without any loss
of information in filled-out data fields. Character cells can be rectangles with borders made up of
raster lines, i.e. sequences of small black dots, or white rectangles on a raster background made
up of individual dots.
• Black-and-white linear forms. In the case of black-and-white linear forms, field borders are
simple lines which remain on the scanned image. During recognition, the program therefore has
to first separate the field border from the field content, and then recognize the content. Based on
the information about the number of character cells in the data field and the method of separating
the cells from each other, the program detects vertical and horizontal lines on the layout and
separates them from the field content.
The questionnaire that you have created in ABBYY FlexiCapture 8.0 Professional is a good example of a
machine-readable fixed form and is clearly identifiable as a color drop-out form. Please analyze the
arrangement of the main elements on this form.