Image Enhancement Profiles

With image enhancement profiles, users can automatically make necessary changes to images on Scanning Stations or on the Application Server.

The program already includes two preconfigured profiles:

• Photo – This profile contains recommended editing settings for photos of documents.
• Scan – This profile contains recommended editing settings for scanned documents.

You can also create custom image enhancement profiles (see Creating a custom image enhancement profile for details).

To automatically apply an image enhancement profile to all incoming images, do one of the following:

• Assign the profile to a batch type on the Project Setup Station (in the batch type properties dialog box, click the Image Processing tab and select the Use image enhancement profile option).
• Assign the profile to an import profile on the Project Setup Station (in the import profile properties dialog box, click the Image Processing tab and select the Use image enhancement profile option).
• Assign the profile to a batch type or apply it automatically when loading images onto the Scanning Station.

An image enhancement profile can also be applied manually, either when you load images from files or after images have been loaded.

• To apply an image enhancement profile to images as you load them from files, open the Load Images dialog box, click the Image Processing Settings... button to open the Image Processing dialog box, and select the Use image enhancement profile option.
• To apply an image enhancement profile to images that have already been loaded, right-click a page or a selection of pages and click Edit Image → Apply Image Enhancement Profile. Alternatively, open the Edit menu and click Image → Apply Image Enhancement Profile.

Creating a custom image enhancement profile

Image enhancement profiles are created on a Scanning Station or in the Project Setup Station (the Image Enhancement Profiles tab of the Project dialog box → Project Properties...).

You can create a custom image enhancement profile with a set of image editing tools configured for a specific project. To do this:

1. Create a new profile by clicking New... on the Image Enhancement Profiles tab. The tab where you can create an image enhancement profile will open.
2. Load an image to test the set of editing actions being created (click the Load Preview button in the bottom left corner of the panel).
3. Compose a set of image editing tools using the on/off toggle to the right of each action on the image enhancement panel.
   

   Image editing tools

   • Split - splits an image horizontally / vertically for the selected number of separate pages
     Note: When using, this action you should make sure that documents on all images are placed evenly. Otherwise, significant information may be lost.
   • Resolution - changes the resolution of an image
   • Rotate - rotates an image
   • Flip - flips an image horizontally / vertically
   • Invert Colors - inverts colors of an image that contains light text on the dark background
   • Autoсrop - automatically searches for page boundaries on an image, crops the area that contains data for extraction, and corrects skew and distortions (three available modes are Generic, Photo, and Scan)
   • Remove ISO Noise - removes noise from an image
   • Remove Motion Blur - removes blur that occurs when moving a document or a camera/scanner
   • Photo Correction:
   • Whiten Background - whitens the background of an image
   • Equalize Brightness - equalizes the brightness of an image
   • Remove Color Marks - removes all color marks from an image (you can this tool, for example, to remove stamps or signatures in colored ink)
   • Remove marks of specified colors only - removes marks only of the specified color.Note: If this option is not selected, all color marks except gray scale marks will be deleted. For example, if you need to delete blue stamps and leave green headings, select this option and select a color.
   • Deskew:
   • Use black separators to correct skew - allows you to correct image skew using separators
   • Use black squares to correct skew - allows you to correct image skew using black squares
     Note: Avoid using the deskew tool for photos of documents, as this may adversely affect the quality of OCR.
   • Remove Geometrical Distortions - removes geometrical distortions
     Note: The functionality of this tool is included in the Autoсrop tool (see above). For this reason, if you have added the Autoсrop tool to your profile, you do not need to select this tool.
   • Remove Scanner Shadow - removes scanner shadow from an image
   • Brightness & Contrast - allows you to configure the brightness and contrast of an image
   • Convert to B\W - converts color and gray images to black and white
   • Despeckle - removes very small noise elements from an image (this tool can only be used on black-and-white images)
     Important! If you set the size of the elements to be despeckled and the text on the images is very light or is printed in a thin font, you should make sure that significant elements like punctuation marks and thin letter elements are not deleted when applying the Despeckle tool.

4. Set the sequence of actions. The sequence may be important in certain cases, for example, when you need to configure the brightness and contrast of an image before deleting color elements. Some actions have a fixed position, others can be moved around. To move an action to a different position, do one of the following:
• Hover you mouse pointer over the vertical three dots to the left of the action name, click and hold the left mouse button, and move the action to the desired position.
• Select an action from the list, press and hold the SHIFT key, and move the action using the UP and DOWN keys.
5. To apply the changes to the test image, click Apply. If you want editing changes to apply automatically on an image when selecting an action, enable the Auto Apply option. Bear in mind that auto-apply of changes takes some time.
6. In the Name field at the top of the panel, specify a name for your new profile and click OK.

The new profile will appear in the list of available image enhancement profiles. To edit a custom profile, select it from the list on the Image Enhancement Profiles tab and click Edit....

The preconfigured profiles cannot be edited, but you can always create a new profile based on a preconfigured profile, add or delete any actions, and save the new profile. To do this:

1. On the Image Enhancement Profiles tab, select one of the preconfigured image enhancement profiles and click Copy.
2. Select the copied profile from the list and click Edit....
3. In the panel that opens, edit the preconfigured profile.
4. In the Name field, specify a new name for your custom profile and click OK.

Importing and exporting an image enhancement profile

Custom image enhancement profiles may be exported to be used on a Scanning Station or on the Project Setup Station. Profiles are exported to an XML file.

To export an image enhancement profile, proceed as follows:

1. On the Image Enhancement Profiles tab, select the name of the profile that you want to import and click Export....
2. In the window that opens, select where the profile must be saved (either locally or on a server).
3. Enter the path and click ОК.

After that you will be able to import and use the image enhancement profile on the Project Setup Station (the Image Enhancement Profiles tab in the Batch properties dialog box) or an a Scanning Station (the Tools menu → Processing Profiles...).