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Page Improver
User Manual
version : 2
4DigitalBooks
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Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1. THE SOLUTION....................................................................................................................................... 3
2. OPERATING MODES ............................................................................................................................... 4
2.1. THE MENU : OPERATING MODES ............................................................................................................ 4
2.1.1. SINGLE PAGES....................................................................................................................................... 4
2.1.2. LEFT & RIGHT ON ONE IMAGE ................................................................................................................. 4
2.1.3. LEFT & RIGHT ON TWO IMAGES .............................................................................................................. 4
2.1.4. SEQUENCE OF IMAGE FILES :.................................................................................................................. 4
3. PROCEDURE .......................................................................................................................................... 5
3.1. TYPICAL USE ......................................................................................................................................... 5
3.2. TREATMENT OF EXCEPTIONS AND DRIFTS: .............................................................................................. 5
3.2.1. A. AUTOMATIC BATCH TREATMENT ......................................................................................................... 5
3.2.2. B. SEMI-AUTOMATIC TREATMENT ............................................................................................................ 5
4. LEFT & RIGHT ON TWO IMAGES .............................................................................................................. 6
4.1. MAIN WINDOW ....................................................................................................................................... 6
5. PROCESS COMMANDS ............................................................................................................................ 8
5.1. FOLDERS AND FILES............................................................................................................................... 9
6. MANIPULATION OF FILES ...................................................................................................................... 10
6.1. OPERATIONS WITH MOUSE AND KEYBOARD FOR SELECTING FILES ........................................................ 11
7. OUTPUT FOLDER ................................................................................................................................. 12
8. BORDERS (AUTOMATIC SEARCH OF PAGE BORDERS) ............................................................................ 13
9. DESKEW .............................................................................................................................................. 15
9.1. REGULAR DESKEW .............................................................................................................................. 15
9.2. COMPONENT DESKEW .......................................................................................................................... 17
9.3. MANUAL DESKEW ................................................................................................................................ 19
10. SHOULDER SEARCHING ........................................................................................................................ 20
10.1. PRINCIPLE OF PLACING SEARCH ZONES ................................................................................................ 20
10.2. DIMENSIONS OF SEARCH ZONES........................................................................................................... 21
10.3. MANUAL PLACEMENT OF SHOULDER ..................................................................................................... 22
10.4. SETTING OF SHOULDER ........................................................................................................................ 22
10.5. VERTICAL PLACEMENT OF ZONES FOR SHOULDER SEARCHING ................................................................ 24
11. CROP (CUTTING OUT PAGES) ............................................................................................................... 26
11.1. ADJUSTMENT WITH KEYBOARD :............................................................................................................ 26
11.2. ADJUSTMENT WITH MOUSE ................................................................................................................... 27
11.3. V CENTER ........................................................................................................................................... 28
11.4. BORDER (AUTOMATIC SIZE OF CROPPING BOX)................................................................................... 28
12. GAMMA (CORRECTING BLACK POINT, WHITE POINT AND GAMMA) .......................................................... 29
13. OUTPUT FORMATS ............................................................................................................................... 30
13.1. TABLE OF FUNCTIONS ........................................................................................................................... 30
13.2. TABLE OF FORMATS ............................................................................................................................. 31
13.3. BEHAVIOR OF RESIZE ........................................................................................................................... 31
14. BATCH ................................................................................................................................................. 32
15. WINDOWS FOR VISUALIZATION .............................................................................................................. 34
16. MANIPULATING WINDOWS FOR VISUALIZATION ...................................................................................... 35
17. MANIPULATING THE LOUPE ................................................................................................................... 36
18. SINGLE PAGES..................................................................................................................................... 37
19. LEFT & RIGHT ON ONE IMAGE ............................................................................................................... 38
20. SOFTWARE INSTALLATION .................................................................................................................... 39
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1. Introduction
The Need
Page Improver is an application designed for sequential treatment of series of
image files produced from digitizing of books and bound documents. It is an
essential tool for image treatment in a workshop of mass digitizing.
Page Improver splits left and right pages and crops each one to make two
distinct pages. It allows also producing usual treatments such as correcting
angle of text (deskew), suppressing transparency of print that appears from the
opposite page (unbleed), applying the page on selected format (canvas),
converting in black and white binary (threshold).
For a trained operator, setting parameters is usually limited to few minutes. The
rest of time Page Improver executes automatically the work on all pages of the
book.
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2. Operating Modes
(Instructions : see 4)
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3. Procedure
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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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5. Process Commands
1
2
1. Source Folder
Designation of folder containing image files to be treated. By default,
destination folder will be created inside this folder. (see also 7)
2. Apply & Preview
Applies all selected treatments and displays a preview of results. Results
are not recorded at this stage.
3. Save & Open Next
Saves results and opens next image from the list of selected by checkbox
images (semi-automatic mode). At least one image shall be selected in
order to save results.
4. Handle Files
Treats the batch from the list of selected by checkbox images and saves
the results.
STOP
Stops the process of batch treatment. The last treated image in the list
remains highlighted. Warning ! Batch treatment starts always from the first
image selected by checkbox in the list.
5. Load Profile / Save Profile
Loads a file of settings, respectively saves current settings in a file.
Profiles files have the extension (.FYR)
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You may either enter directly the path to the folder of files, or navigate as usual
by selecting the navigation button.
If you enter a partial path, navigation starts at that point.
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6. Manipulation of Files
Local Navigator
6 7 8
1 2
3 4 5
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6.1.1. Mouse
Left click and drag by maintaining the click to highlight a set of files. More the
mouse is distant from source point and more scrolling accelerates.
6.1.2. Keyboard
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7. Output Folder
By default, this folder is created inside source folder.
You may either enter directly the path to this folder, or navigate as usual by
selecting the navigation button.
Example : ..\TRE will make a folder one rank higher in folder tree, at the same
level as Source Folder.
Output folder is automatically created at the moment of saving first treatment.
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2
6
5
3
4
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Principle of operation
(see two illustrations below)
The software determines average level of gray of page background. This level
is represented by the horizontal white line. White level (gray level of paper or
"white of paper") : 211 in this example).
The value of "Threshold" is represented by the horizontal red line. Threshold
(in %) is relative to "White level" (100%). A value of 90% provides generally
good results.
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9. Deskew
Straightens orientation of page so that text lines become horizontal.
1
2
3
4 5
6
7
1. Black Limit fixes contrast value between color of page background and
color of characters on which application bases calculations. A value of 140
produces generally good results.
2. Max angle refers to the maximum angle of correction to be applied on
images. If measure discovers a superior skew angle, then no rotation will
be applied on image. That's the case when the method fails.
3. Min count indicates the minimal number of elements that shall be taken
into account for the calculation. If the number of elements does not meet
indicated quota, no rotation will be applied on image. (A low value allows
to avoid treatment of white pages or pages that contain only images). The
counter "counts" (7) indicates the number of elements found by the
method.
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7. Counts indicates the number of points that the system has found and
used for calculating deskew.
To see a preview of results for your settings, reload image files (double click
on file name of page in the list).
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1
6
2
4
5
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4. Typ. Sizes : Typical sizes of components discovered and used for deskew
(in pixels).
To find the value of "Min. Size" in optimal way, enter values inferior by 2
pixels to those shown in the field "Typ. Sizes".
5. Orientations : Determines the orientation of page in order to make the
best deskew possible (portrait or landscape). This is only an indicative
value.
6. Limit values :
Black Limit : fixes the color under which will be taken in consideration text
and images for measuring skew angle. A value between 90 and 180
allows generally good results.
By changing the values "Black Limit" and "Min. Size" you may optimize the
number of components discovered by the application.
Max angle : (value in degrees) Allows deskew if skew angle is inferior or
equal to this value.
Min count : Allows deskew if number of components (in blue) is superior
to this value.
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Settings may be done either individually or jointly for both pages (select the
checkbox : Right Page = Left).
In red settings for upper zone, in blue settings for lower zone.
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Max Variation maximal variation for placing the shoulder from one image to
the next. Allows avoiding errors of zone placement due to
interferences from images or colored backgrounds. If the shift of
zone is superior to the value indicated in this field, the position
of previous page will be applied.
This function is useful for adjusting the starting point after loading files of a
new book.
To the medium value found by upper and lower zone if Middle is selected.
To the value defining the largest page possible if Diagonal is selected. For
an optimal operation, the function "Triangle" of the "Crop" tab shall be
enabled. In this case, a triangle (represented in yellow in Figure 17 :
Triangle) covers the part of the opposite page that is inside the cropping
frame. Filling color may be defined manually or automatically (mean color of
background of page). (See also 11)
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Filled with
Triangle
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Values that allow placing vertically searching zones are entered in field Shift.
You may also move vertically the zones with the mouse by clicking on the
external edge of the box.
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S
W
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Width W
Height H
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11.3. V Center
Vertical centering of cropping box may be determined :
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A B C
This window displays histograms of raw images loaded. 3 vertical lines indicate
selected settings values.
A setting of BLACK point (the spectrum on the left will be forced to black)
B setting of Gamma (influences on all values of spectrum)
C setting of WHITE point (the spectrum on the right will be forced to white)
Adjustment may be done with keyboard on with mouse. To preview results, click
on button "Apply & Preview".
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None No compression
Coefficient of quality for
JPEG compression expressed in % Compression with loss.
(Joint 100 = maximal quality Records by default in RGB mode
Photographic 10 = minimal quality
Expert Group)
Forces saving in 256 gray levels for all
Force Gray Level
formats except CCITT
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14. Batch
This mode allows programming in advance a large number of tasks that may be
processed sequentially in a batch.
Use
1. Prepare all settings on the folder of images that you want to process.
2. In the box "Batch Manifest", select "Create". Then save the manifest.
3. Repeat operations 1 to 2 for all folders that you want to add to the batch.
4. In the box "Batch List", select "Add Manifest", go to the folder where are
saved the manifests. Select all those that you want to add to the batch and
validate.
5. The manifests will be displayed in the list "Manifests".
6. It is possible to remove manifests by using the button "Remove Manifest".
7. Select "Execute" to start the batch process.
Warning : processing a batch ignores all alerts and is likely to overwrite existing
data.
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Loupe
Loupe
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Button "Even, Odd, All" allows to toggle sequential treatment of pages. Either
Even, or Odd, or All pages. Each click on this button modifies the selection of
images in the column "OK".
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Window for
visualization of the
raw image.
Figure 30 : Left and Right on One Image - Window for Raw Images
Figure 31 : Left and Right on One Image - Window for Treated Images
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