Kofax Scanning

General Scanning Procedure

Page Preparation

Before loading the scanner with paper, be sure all staples and paper clips have been removed. Pages that are torn or folded severely should not be placed through the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). Instead, place these on the flatbed or make a copy of them and scan the copy.

When using the ADF, be aware of the scanner’s capabilities. Placing too many sheets of paper into the scanner may cause paper jams.

Feeding the Scanner

• Use the Scanner Settings button on the Settings frame to set the proper parameters for scanning.
• Place the pages in the scanner.
• Select the Batch style to use when scanning on the Batch frame. Click Single page documents if all of the documents being scanned are one page in length. Click Multi page documents if the documents are of different lengths or if a single multi-page document is being scanned.
• Select the appropriate Page handling style on the Page handling frame. Click one pass, front only if the pages have print only on the front side or if a duplex scanner is being used and the pages have print on both sides. Click two pass, front/back if the pages have print on the front and the back and you are using a single-sided scanner.
• Click Begin Scan to start scanning pages.
• When all the pages that were placed in the scanner are scanned, the following message is displayed:

The scanner is empty. To scan more pages, place them in the scanner then click YES. Scan more pages? YES | NO | CHANGE PARAMETERS

Select No if there are no more pages to be scanned in this batch. If there are more pages to scan, place the pages in the scanner and click Yes. If there are more pages to scan but the scanner parameters must first be changed, place the pages in the scan and select Change Parameters. Change the scanner parameters as necessary and when OK is clicked, the pages will be scanned.

• Once you have selected No to the above question, you will be asked the following:

Keep these images?

Answer Yes to save the images. If you answer No, all of the image files that were scanned are removed.

• The temporary image numbers for the pages that were scanned are loaded into a list box. You can review the images by clicking on the number. Insert, replace and delete buttons are available to add, replace or remove the selected image.
• If the Batch style was ‘single page documents’, then you can click the Done button to save the images as their permanent document number. Document numbers are assigned sequentially by the system.
• If the Batch style was ‘multi page documents’ then you can group documents by finding the last page of a document and clicking the end of document button. See ‘Stapling pages into documents’ below for more information.

Stapling Documents

If the pages scanned represent many multi-page documents, the pages must be grouped into documents. This process is called stapling. To staple documents. use the following procedure.

• Turn on the multi page documents button in the Batch frame.
• Once a batch of images is scanned, the temporary image number that has been assigned to each page is listed in the image list box in the upper right corner.
• Page through the images using the Down arrow key or by clicking the image number in the list box. This displays the image in the image window on the left.
• When the last page of a document is found, click on the End of Document button or press the F5 key. The pages for that document are then stapled and placed into the basket.
• Continue this process until all pages in the batch have been assigned to a document.

This process staples the images into separate, multi-page documents. Each page within a document is assigned a file name consisting of this 8-digit image number with an extension of the page number.

Staple Preview

The Staple Preview option can be turned on behind the Tools-Options tab of the scan module. With this option, the above stabling procedure is the same, except instead of immediately removing stapled documents from the list, the staple point (when F5 or End of Document is pressed) is marked with <end of doc>. If a mistake is made during stapling, you can return to the staple point and press F5 again to remove the <end of doc> marker. When all the staple points have been defined, click Done to actually perform the stapling process.

Note that once the Staple Preview option is enabled, then it is used for all databases in the scan and import modules.

Special Features

Removing a page from the batch

• Highlight the image number in the image list box.
• Press the delete button to remove the page from the batch. This deletes the image from the in-basket and removes the file from disk.

Inserting pages into the batch

• Highlight the image number in the image list box before which the page to be inserted will be placed.
• Press the insert button to scan a new page and insert it into the list.

Replacing a page in a batch

• Highlight the image number in the image list box that should be replaced.
• Press the replace button to scan a new page and replace the selected image.

Deskewing pages during scan

Deskew is the process of recognizing that a page was misaligned when fed through the scanner, then correcting the angle to improve image quality. Correction for deskew of up to 16 degrees is possible.

To use the deskew feature:

• Before scanning, select Configure-Deskew to load the dialog box for deskew options.
• Check both the Detection enable check box and the Correction enable check box.
• The default minimum angle of 0 degrees and maximum angle of 16 degrees normally work well. These can be adjusted for particular needs.
• Click OK to exit the Deskew dialog box.
• Scan the pages.

If a memory error occurs, your KOFAX card may not have enough memory to cache images and deskew at the same time. In this case, change the scanner parameters using the Change Settings button on the scanner parameter form and set Pre-Scan Cache to zero.

Even after scanning without the deskew option, a crooked page can be deskewed by pressing the deskew button located in the tool bar.

Removing the black border from pages during scan

Black Border Removal is the process of identifying and removing the black border generated by some scanners.

To use the Black Border Removal feature:

• Before scanning, select Configure-Black Border Removal to load the dialog containing the Black Border Removal options.
• Check the Enable check box.
• If you wish to crop the black border, check the Crop check box.
• You can adjust the White Noise Gap as needed but should test the option before going into full production.
• Click OK to exit the Black Border Removal dialog box.
• Scan the pages.

If a memory error occurs, your KOFAX card may not have enough memory to cache images and black border removal at the same time. In this case, change the scanner parameters using the Change Settings button on the scanner parameter form and set Pre-Scan Cache to zero.

Removing shaded areas from pages during scan

Deshade is the process of identifying and removing the shaded portions of the image.

To use the Deshade feature:

• Before scanning, select Configure-Deshade to load the dialog containing Deshade options.
• Check both the Enable Detection and Enable Removal check boxes.
• You can adjust the width and speckle paramters as needed but should test the options before going into full production.
• Click OK to exit the Deshade dialog box.
• Scan the pages.

If a memory error occurs, your KOFAX card may not have enough memory to cache images and deshade at the same time. In this case, change the scanner parameters using the Change Settings button on the scanner parameter form and set Pre-Scan Cache to zero.

Despeckling pages during scan

Despeckle is the process of removing tiny dots that may appear on the image.

To use the Despeckle feature:

• Before scanning, select Configure-Despeckle to load the dialog containing Despeckleoptions.
• Check the Enable check box.
• You can adjust the height and width parameters as needed but should test the option before going into full production.
• Click OK to exit the Despeckle dialog box.
• Scan the pages.

If a memory error occurs, your KOFAX card may not have enough memory to cache images and despeckle at the same time. In this case, change the scanner parameters using the Change Settings button on the scanner parameter form and set Pre-Scan Cache to zero.

Enhancing the edges of characters during scan

Edge Enhancement is the process of enhancing the edges of lines and characters to improve image quality.

To use the Edge Enhancement feature:

• Before scanning, select Configure-Edge Enhancement to load the dialog containing the Edge Enhancement options.
• Check the Enable check box.
• Highlight the image filters that you wish to include.
• Click OK to exit the Edge Enhancement dialog box.
• Scan the pages.

If a memory error occurs, your KOFAX card may not have enough memory to cache images and edge enhancement at the same time. In this case, change the scanner parameters using the Change Settings button on the scanner parameter form and set Pre-Scan Cache to zero.

Removing the lines from pages during scan

Line Removal is the process of identifying and removing the horizontal and/or vertical lines on the page. This is typically used to remove form lines.

To use the Line Removal feature:

• Before scanning, select Configure-Line Removal to load the dialog containing the Line Removal options.
• Check either or both the Enable Horizontal and Enable Vertical check boxes.
• You can adjust the options as needed but should test the option before going into full production.
• Click OK to exit the Line Removal dialog box.
• Scan the pages.

If a memory error occurs, your KOFAX card may not have enough memory to cache images and line removal at the same time. In this case, change the scanner parameters using the Change Settings button on the scanner parameter form and set Pre-Scan Cache to zero.

Removing streaks from pages during scan

Streak Removal is the process of identifying and removing the streaks from the image.

To use the Streak Removal feature:

• Before scanning, select Configure-Streak Removal to load the dialog containing the Streak Removal options.
• Check the Enable check box.
• You can adjust the Streak Width parameter as needed but should test the option before going into full production.
• Click OK to exit the Streak Removal dialog box.
• Scan the pages.

If a memory error occurs, your KOFAX card may not have enough memory to cache images and streak removal at the same time. In this case, change the scanner parameters using the Change Settings button on the scanner parameter form and set Pre-Scan Cache to zero.

Inverting (reversing) the image during scan

Inverting is the process of reversing the black and white color on the image.

To invert the images during scan (flip the black and white):

• Before scanning, select Configure-Invert to check the invert option.
• Scan the pages.

Duplex Scanning

Some scanners are capable of scanning both sides of the page at the same time. These are called duplex scanners. To use duplex scanners to scan two-sided documents:

• Click the Scanner Settings button on the Setting frame to activate the scanner setup dialog box.
• Normally, in the upper right corner of this box is a Mode frame with options for Single-sided or Duplex. If Duplex is inactive then either your scanner is not capable of duplex scanning or the scanner was improperly configured when ImageControls was installed.
• Click the Duplex option and then click OK to close the setup box.
• Make sure the Page handling option is set to ‘one pass, front only’.
• Click Begin Scan.

Stapling with Barcodes

Pages can be automatically grouped into documents when a Bar Code, interpreted as a Patch Code, appears on the first or last page of each document. To use this feature:

• Define a field in your database that will be populated from the Barcode value.
• Using Configure-Bar Codes, specify that the field is to be interpreted as a patch code and designate whether the Bar Code appears on the first or last page of the document. Within Configure-Bar Codes, scan a sample document to be sure the system can recognize the Bar Code.
• Scan a batch of documents that contain the bar code in the same way a normal batch of documents is scanned.
• After the entire batch is scanned, a button called Auto Split on Patch Code is displayed. Click this button and system will automatically group the pages into documents.
• After all the pages have been processed, a count of the documents found will be displayed. Verify this count against the number of documents scanned to be sure the documents were properly split.

Barcode Recognition is available in halFILE only when a KOFAX hardware or software engine is present in the computer.

Definitions

The following explains some of the parameters available. The options available depend on the scanner model in use.

Paper size - the size of the paper being fed into the scanner. You should set the paper size correctly to ensure that the entire page is scanned.

Source - set to flatbed, if your scanner has one, if you want to lay the page flat on the scanner glass. Set to ADF if you want to feed a stack of pages through the automatic document feeder.

Destination - if the scanner is capable of routing the paper to different output bins, this option will select the bin.

Resolution (DPI) - typical settings include 150, 200, 240, 300 or 400 dots per inch. Normally, the higher the resolution setting, the better the image quality. However, the image file size is larger. The suggested setting for normal hand-written or typed documents is 200 dpi. Higher resolution may be required for pages that will be read using an OCR engine or that contain bar codes. Setting the resolution too high on large sized documents may prevent the page from being scanned because of insufficient memory. This is dependent on the scanner card or scanner software driver being used.

Rotation - this will rotate the image before saving. This could be useful in improving scan performance by scanning pages in sideways to reduce the length of the scan path, then saving them after rotation.

Mode - if the scanner is capable of dual page scanning, set this to Duplex for two-sided documents.

Dual Page scanning - involves scanning both sides of the page when the paper passes through the scanner.

Orientation - defines the orientation of the page being scanned (portrait or landscape).

Picking Rectangle - enabled this if you wish to scan only a portion of the page. Once this option is checked, the rectangle to scan is using the associated top, bottom, left and right boxes. These can be entered in either pixels (dots per inch) or inches.