Zone OCR

Zone OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, is a process by which a specific area on a scanned or imported document image is converted to text.  Zoning, as it is called, is leveraged to automate data entry by mapping areas on a page to index fields.   Straight zone OCR can be problematic due to a number of issues inherent to capturing documents:

• Page Registration – page registration is the shifting of document page images due to slight differences in scanning hardware.   A minor shift in the image left or right can render zone OCR useless.
• Image Quality – low image quality can provide inaccurate results.  Shading, speckling, contrast and brightness are just a few of the image problems that can affect the conversion of image to text.
• Form Changes – in forms processing, Zone OCR usually leverages a fixed image template for areas on a page.  Any revision or change in the layout of the form can make zone OCR ineffective.

There are several enhanced zone OCR features that can alleviate these issues, including: image cleanup or processing, page anchoring and zone pattern matching.