Line Removal

Line Removal will remove horizontal or vertical lines that run through text and can interfere with optical character recognition. It will work on color as well as black and white images, but will be more efficient on black and white. When configuring line removal, you can specify the orientation of the line(s) to be removed, the minimum length, the maximum thickness, the maximum gap between the pixels, the area where excess pixels should be removed, and character reconstruction. Character reconstruction repairs characters that were affected by the line removal process. It is performed after the line has been removed.

To use Line Removal

1. In the Session Configuration Pane, select the stage of processing where you want to use Line Removal.
2. In the Tasks Pane, select Line Removal. In the bottom right of the Tasks Pane, you can select Wizard to display more information about each property or Skip Wizard to display the properties all at once without additional information.
3. Page Range: When configuring an image enhancement in Page Processing or Storage Processing, you will be prompted to specify a page range. In other stages, default settings will automatically be applied.
4. Line Orientation: Specify whether to remove horizontal or vertical lines.

   Tip: To remove both, add an additional Line Removal enhancement to your Quick Fields session.

5. Minimum Line Size: Define the smallest line that should be removed by specifying the minimum number of pixels printed in a row (vertically or horizontally, depending on your selection in Step 5). Lines equal to or longer than the specified size will be removed.

Example: Selecting Short (75) removes all lines 75 pixels or longer in length.

6. Maximum Line Thickness: Define the maximum thickness (in pixels) a line can reach and still be removed.

Example: Selecting Thin (10) removes all lines that are 10 pixels thick or less.

7. Maximum Line Gap: Specify the maximum gap (in pixels) that can exist within a single line. This option compensates for lines that have been fragmented due to a poor quality image. Segments separated by more space than the size specified will be considered separate lines and will not be removed.
8. Excess Line Cleanup: The area surrounding a poor quality line often contains stray marks. This option defines a region (in pixels) around the line from which stray marks will be removed.

Example: Selecting Medium (2) removes all stray marks located within two pixels from a line.

9. Character Reconstruction: Characters that intersect lines may be damaged during line removal. The Character Reconstruction option repairs any damaged characters. Specify the scope of character reconstruction. The numbers represent the maximum gap, in pixels, of a character disruption to be reconstructed.

Tip: If damaged characters are not sufficiently repaired during processing or testing, select a higher value. If characters are improperly repaired, select a lower value.

10. Optional: To preview how this enhancement will affect scanned images and OCRed or extracted text, test processes. For the best results, add a custom sample image before testing. Adjust and test until you are satisfied with the results.