Technical FAQs

Is it possible to use PrizmDoc Editor to edit a document offline?

No. PrizmDoc Editor is tolerant of network connectivity problems like bad WiFi. However, if PrizmDoc Editor loses connectivity with the server for too long, editing functionality will be disabled until the network connectivity can be reestablished.

Is there a guide for server sizing for PrizmDoc Editor?

With PrizmDoc Editor, most of the processing is done in the client browser. This makes the server hardware requirements quite modest. Due to this operation, there is no need for a complex server sizing guide. Just use any server which meets our minimum hardware requirements (3.75 GiB memory, 1 vCPU, 4 GB SSD storage; in AWS, an m3.medium).

What file formats does PrizmDoc Editor accept?

PrizmDoc Editor currently only accepts .docx files.

What happens if my Editor client loses connection to the Editor server or my license becomes invalid?

The client currently pings the server every 15 seconds. If it fails to connect or if the license expires and becomes invalid, it will display a dialog indicating that it cannot save changes. The dialog will be dismissed automatically as soon as the connection is restored (or the license becomes valid).

What server operating system do I need to run PrizmDoc Editor?

PrizmDoc Editor is delivered as docker image. You can run it on any docker host.

Where can I find code samples for PrizmDoc Editor?

Code samples are embedded in the PrizmDoc Editor API documentation.

Why does my font look different when rendered in PrizmDoc Editor?

If the font in the document is not a font loaded on the server running PrizmDoc Editor, then Editor will attempt to substitute a font that is closest in appearance to the font used in the document.

Does Accusoft Licensing Talk to Accusoft Servers at Runtime?

No, although if you run an Accusoft licensing utility (as opposed to an OEM key) that will communicate with the Accusoft servers to place a license on your machine. That’s it. When you run your code, network access to Accusoft servers is not necessary.

What are the best quality images to use when processing form data and recognition?

In order to add a new FormTableColumnHeaderDefinition to a FormTableDefinition object, first create a list of type FormTableColumnHeaderDefinition. Next, each FormTableColumnHeaderDefinition object is created and defined and added to this list using the Add method. Finally, this list is assigned to the FormTableDefinition’s ColumnHeaderDefinitions property.

// Create a table definition
FormTableDefinition tableDefinition = new FormTableDefinition();
tableDefinition.Name = "Line Item Table";

// Setup the columns of the table
List<FormTableColumHeaderDefinition> columnHeaderDefinitions = new List<FormTableColumnHeaderDefinition>();

FormTableColumnHeaderDefinition descriptionColumn = new FormTableColumnHeaderDefinition();
descriptionColumn.DataType = FormFieldDataType.GeneralText;
descriptionColumn.Name = "Description";
columnHeaderDefinitions.Add(descriptionColumn);

FormTableColumnHeaderDefinition amountColumn = new FormTableColumnHeaderDefinition();
amountColumn.DataType = FormFieldDataType.Currency;
amountColumn.Name = "Amount";
columnHeaderDefinitions.Add(amountColumn);

tableDefinition.ColumnHeaderDefinitions = columnHeaderDefinitions;

// Add the table definition to the form definition
formDefinition.TableDefinitions.Add(tableDefinition.Name, tableDefinition);

What are the best quality images to use when processing form data and recognition?

In all cases, you’ll want to have your images as clear and as clean as possible. For any particular procedure, please consider the following: OCR and ICR: Capture images in at least 300 DPI resolution. Ideally, working in black and white will allow the objects of interest on your image to be better defined and recognized. Free the image form all noise as much as possible. As if a human was reading it, you’ll want the text objects on the image to be as legible as possible. For ICR, make sure that the characters are printed (no cursive text, etc). Barcode recognition: As with OCR and ICR, capture images in at least 300 DPI and working with black and white content can provide excellent results. You’ll also want to make sure that the bars in the barcodes are clearly defined on the image and are not mal-formed (for example, the barcodes should have the proper start and stop sequence, etc). As always, clear as much noise from the image as possible. Forms matching and registration: As with the prior 2 items above, capture your documents in at least 300 DPI. Make sure that your resolution is consistent between your form templates and incoming batch images as well. Form templates should only contain data that is common to every image that is being processed (i.e. – Form fields, the text that appears on the blank form itself, etc). The template should not have filled-in field information as this will affect the forms matching process.

What are the differences between the compressions used in TIFF files?

The Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is widely popular, and is particularly used in document imaging. It can support a number of compression types:

• Packbits – Created by Apple, this lossless compression type is used for run-length encoding (RLE). Baseline TIFF readers must support this compression. Use this compression for higher compatibility with various applications.
• CCITT (Huffman encoding) – Used particularly for encoding bitonal (or bi-level) images. “Group 3” and “Group 4” are particularly known for its use with fax transmission of images. Using this compression type will help keep smaller file sizes.
• LZW – A lossless compression type that supports multiple bit depths. Because it’s lossless, it produces files that are generally larger than other compressions. Use this compression if you want to retain the exact visual quality of the image without data loss or artifacts.
• JPEG – Very popular compression, used for color and grayscale images and can produce high compression ratios. JPEG allows a good amount of control over how the image in question should be compressed. Use this compression for general color or grayscale images.
• Deflate – A lossless compression using Huffman and LZ77 techniques and also supports different bit depths.