Technical FAQs

When it comes to downloading or viewing documents over the internet, PDFs have long served as a de facto standard for most organizations. Since PDFs are not a proprietary file format, there’s rarely any risk that someone will be unable to open them. However, just because PDFs have become so commonplace doesn’t mean that they all share the same characteristics. For anyone who has ever wondered why some PDFs seem to take so much longer to load than others, the answer often has less to do with connection and processing speeds as it does with the way the PDF’s content is organized.

More specifically, it’s a matter of whether or not the document is a linearized PDF.

What Is a Linearized PDF?

Sometimes called “fast web view,” linearization is a special way of saving a PDF file that organizes its internal components to make them easier to read when the file is streamed over a network connection. While a standard, non-linearized PDF stores information associated with each page across the entire file, linearized PDFs use an object tree format to consolidate page elements in an ordered, page by page basis. When a reader opens a linearized PDF, then, all of the information needed to render the first page is readily available, allowing it to load the page quickly without having to search the entire document for a specific object like an embedded font.

Originally introduced with the PDF 1.2 standard in 1996, linearized PDFs were critical to the format’s early internet success. In order to view a non-linearized PDF, the entire document needs to be downloaded or read via HTTP request-response transactions. Given the bandwidth limitations of early internet connections (often still between 28.8k and 33.6k in 1996), this created a serious bottleneck problem when it came to document viewing. While it was possible to view a document without downloading it, the multiple HTTP requests needed to do so could easily be disrupted if the connection was lost, something that was all too common in the days before reliable broadband connections were introduced.

Non-Linearized vs Linearized PDFs

To visualize the difference between a non-linearized PDF and a linearized PDF, imagine two separate people sitting down to file their business taxes. One person has all of their receipts, invoices, and financial documents scattered across their office, with some stacked in unordered piles, others crammed into unlabeled folders, and even more stuffed into assorted drawers and file cabinets. Finding and organizing all of this documentation would take almost as much time as actually filing the taxes themselves! The second person, however, has all of the records they need stored in a neatly labeled file cabinet, allowing them to retrieve everything quickly and easily.

The first example is similar to a non-linearized PDF, while the second shows how much easier it is for a reader to access the information it needs to render the file. Even better, since each page is organized in the same way, jumping to a different page in a multi-page PDF doesn’t require the reader to reload the entire file. It can simply read the current page and get everything necessary to display the PDF correctly.

Why Linearized PDFs Are Still Valuable

In a world dominated by high speed internet connections, it’s fair to wonder whether or not PDF linearization is still necessary. For small PDFs that are only a few pages, linearization may not be essential, but when it comes to larger documents, linearization can still deliver substantial performance and user experience benefits.

Consider, for instance, a document that consists of several hundred, or even several thousand, pages. Loading that entire document and keeping it cached may be possible, but it’s an inefficient use of processing and bandwidth resources. With a linearized PDF, a reader typically encounters a linearization directory and hint tables at the top of the document, which provides it with instructions on where to locate any necessary resources within the file. After loading the hint tables and the first page, the reader stops the download process rather than opening the entire file. When the user navigates to another page, the reader can quickly reference the hint tables and jump to that page.

This ensures that the reader is only ever loading the pages that actually need to be displayed, which helps to conserve memory, processing resources, and bandwidth. For mobile devices with limited file and cache storage, linearized PDFs are much easier to manage than their non-linearized counterparts. They also provide some protection against network interruptions, which could make it difficult to download and view an entire document.

How to Linearize PDFs

Although the linearization process is well laid out in the current PDF standards documentation, many PDFs are created using software that doesn’t automatically linearize the content. More importantly, some linearized PDFs are “broken” by a process called incremental saving, which saves minor updates at the end of the file, rather than changing existing structure. Over time, too much incremental saving can undermine the effectiveness of a linearized PDF.

The best way to resolve such problems and linearize the PDF is to save a new, linearized version of the file using PDF editing and conversion tools.

Take Control of PDFs with PrizmDoc

Accusoft’s PrizmDoc provides a broad range of document functionality that allows applications to more effectively create, convert, and compress PDF files.

For a closer look at PrizmDoc and to see its powerful document processing capabilities in action, download a free trial today.

Banks and financial technology (fintech) companies commonly use document life-cycle management solutions to make their back-office functions run more smoothly. To take full advantage of these systems, organizations must be able to transform documents into a format they can work with.

For today’s healthcare organizations, having a versatile electronic health records (EHR) system is essential for running an efficient practice and connecting to other medical providers. Thanks to EHRs, practices can ensure that they’re getting a complete picture of a patient’s health and treatment history, which allows them to deliver much better care outcomes. As developers continue to refine the usability of these systems, they need to consider how they can improve core features like healthcare electronic document management and medical imaging support.

Managing Medical Documents

A typical EHR system has to be able to handle quite a lot of document types. Anyone who has visited a healthcare provider is quite familiar with the myriad forms used to gather patient information. Many of those forms end up being converted into digital formats that need to be managed within the EHR system. Then there are digital versions of lab reports, physician notes, invoices, and financial documents. 

While EHR systems may utilize databases to store much of the information they need, healthcare providers still need to be able to produce physical documents and view digital files in many situations. This could include communicating information to patients, complying with regulatory requests, or filing a financial claim of some kind. More importantly, they also rely on digital documents to enter data into the EHR system. The push toward interoperability between EHR systems has improved information sharing, but there are still many instances where medical records are delivered in the form of a document that needs to be managed securely.

Document Conversion

If an EHR application lacks the right file conversion capabilities, viewing and extracting data from those documents could prove difficult. The last thing a practice wants to do is actually remove them from the secure EHR system to open and convert the files using separate software that may not be compliant when it comes to handling healthcare information. Even if the external application is secure, transferring files over, converting them, and then transferring them back is both inefficient and creates unnecessary risk (especially if someone forgets to delete the original file or move it back into the EHR environment).

ImageGear Medical has a document conversion feature that supports a wide range of file types, allowing developers to build EHR applications capable of quickly converting incoming documents. They can even set up their solution to perform conversion tasks programmatically to help streamline workflows and minimize human error. This helps practices to get a better handle on document management, ensuring that they will be able to do everything they need with files completely within the EHR application.

Other Essential Document Features

But ImageGear Medical’s document capabilities go far beyond just conversion. With full annotation support, developers can provide markup tools within the EHR system that allow physicians to make notes and comments on various documents. This allows them to share information much more easily. If a physician has a question about a diagnosis or a prescription, for instance, they can simply leave an annotation note directly on the document rather than referring to it in a separate message.

ImageGear Medical also allows applications to perform full-page optical character recognition (OCR), which can quickly read and extract text from document and image files. This feature is especially useful for capturing text from scanned images of documents, which can then be used to create a searchable PDF or fill form fields within the EHR system. The OCR engine not only reads most Western languages, but also detects and reads several Eastern language characters.

Managing DICOM Files

One of the biggest challenges healthcare organizations face is with managing medical imaging files. When providers need to send X-Rays, MRIs, or CT Scans, they use a standardized file format known as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) files. These files are more than just image files, however. They contain extensive datasets that provide a patient’s information along with image pixel data for multi-dimensional medical scans. A DICOM file can be quite large due to the high-resolution image data used by most medical imaging equipment.

Although most EHR systems are capable of transmitting DICOM files (via a DICOM out or DICOM send feature), they usually can’t actually view them in their native format. Since Windows doesn’t recognize them as image files, additional viewing software is typically needed to open and view them. This is why physical storage, like discs and flash drives, are often used to transfer DICOM files along with the necessary viewing software.

ImageGear Medical helps to solve the DICOM dilemma thanks to its extensive conversion and compression capabilities. By decoding the complex data contained within the file, ImageGear Medical can convert DICOM files into image formats that are much easier to view and manage. This is especially useful for smaller practices that don’t have a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) capable of storing, retrieving, distributing, and viewing high-quality medical images. 

Converting DICOM files makes it possible for healthcare professionals to view them on any device connected with their EHR system. That could include tablets or other IoT devices that healthcare technology companies are rolling out to put critical medical data on the front lines of everyday care. Developers can also use ImageGear Medical’s conversion tools to allow their EHR system to share viewable versions of diagnostic scans with patients, allowing practices to make good on the promise of providing patients access to their essential health data at all times. 

The sheer size of DICOM files makes them difficult for many practices to manage. Simply compressing them tends to degrade the image data, which can create significant problems when files are unpacked and opened for viewing. Losing even a small degree of image quality can make it much harder to render an accurate diagnosis. In some cases, poorly designed compression can even make it nearly impossible to uncompress again at all. Thanks to powerful lossless compression technology, ImageGear Medical makes it easier to share medical images between providers without damaging the integrity of the original data.

Expand EHR Capabilities with ImageGear Medical

Accusoft’s imaging, conversion, and compression technology has been supporting the needs of the healthcare industry for decades. As developers work to expand the capabilities of their EHR applications, our engineers are busy improving the medical SDKs that will provide them with the features they need to stand out in a competitive market. 

ImageGear Medical utilizes a combination of efficient code and elegant APIs to deliver the document and image processing tools EHR systems require. For a closer look at this dynamic SDKs capabilities, check out our extensive developer resources today or download a free trial to get started.

Continuous innovation has allowed Accusoft to build sustained success over the course of three decades. Much of that innovation comes from talented developers creating novel solutions to everyday problems, many of which go on to become patented technologies that provide the company with an edge over competitors. 

Others, however, are the byproduct of looking at problems from a different perspective or using existing technologies in unique ways. Accusoft supports both approaches by hosting special “hackathon” events each year. These events encourage developers to spend time working on their own unique projects or try out ideas they think may have potential but have never been implemented.

For this year’s hackathon, I took a closer look at how our SmartZone SDK could be implemented as part of an automation solution within a .NET environment without creating an entire application from the ground up. What I discovered was that PowerShell modules offer a quick and easy way to deploy character recognition for limited, unique use cases.

.NET and PowerShell

One of the underestimated abilities of the .NET infrastructure is support loading and executing assemblies out of box from the command line using a shell module. Although there are many shell variants available, PowerShell comes preinstalled on most Windows machines and is the only tool required to make the scripts and keep them running. PowerShell also runs on Linux and macOS, which makes it a true cross-platform task automation solution for inventive developers who crave flexibility in their scripting tools. 

Incorporating the best features of other popular shells, PowerShell consists of a command-line shell, a scripting language, and a configuration management framework. One of the unique features of PowerShell, however, is that unlike most shells which can only accept and return text, it can do the same with .NET objects. This means PowerShell modules can be used to build, test, and deploy solutions as well as manage any technology as part of an extensible automation platform.

Implementing SmartZone Character Recognition

Accusoft’s SmartZone technology allows developers to incorporate advanced zonal character recognition to capture both machine-printed and hand-printed data from document fields. It also supports full page optical character recognition (OCR) and allows developers to set confidence values to determine when manual review of recognition results are necessary. 

Implementing those features into an application through a third-party integration is the best way to incorporate recognition capabilities, but there are some use cases where they might need to be used for general tasks outside of a conventional workflow. A number of Accusoft customers, for instance, had inquired about simple ways to use some of SmartZone’s features in their existing process automation software without having to spend weeks of development time integrating those capabilities on a larger scale.

Thanks to the versatility of PowerShell, there’s no reason to build such an application from scratch. SmartZone’s zonal recognition technology can easily be incorporated into any .NET environment with just a few snippets of code. PowerShell syntax itself is not very difficult to understand and for a quick start it should be enough to use a Windows Notepad application, but we recommend using your favorite integrated development environment (IDE) for a better experience.

Getting Started

First, you need to download SmartZoneV7.0DotNet-AnyCPU.zip from the Accusoft SmartZone download page and unpack it to any suitable directory. This bundle contains all required binaries to run SmartZone.

Create a Simple.ps1 file inside the unpacked directory and start typing your script:

using namespace System.Drawing
using namespace System.Reflection
using namespace Accusoft.SmartZoneOCRSdk

# Load assemblies.
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Drawing
$szPath = Resolve-Path ".\bin\netstandard2.0\Accusoft.SmartZoneOCR.Net.dll"
[Assembly]::LoadFrom($szPath)

# Create a SmartZone instance.
$szObj = [SmartZoneOCR]::new()
$szAssetsPath = Resolve-Path ".\bin\assets"
$szObj.OCRDataPath = $szAssetsPath.Path

# Licensing
# $szObj.Licensing.SetSolutionName("Contact Accusoft for getting the license.")
# $szObj.Licensing.SetSolutionKey(+1, 800, 875, 7009)
# $szObj.Licensing.SetOEMLicenseKey("https://www.accusoft.com/company/legal/licensing/");

# Load test image.
$bitmapPath = Resolve-Path ".\demos\images\OCR\MultiLine.bmp"
[Bitmap] $bitmap = [Image]::FromFile($bitmapPath.Path)

# Recognize the image and print the result.
$result = $szObj.Reader.AnalyzeField([Bitmap] $bitmap);
Write-Host $result.Text

# Free the resources.
$bitmap.Dispose();
$szObj.Dispose();

This simple code snippet allows you to use SmartZone together with PowerShell in task automation processes like recognizing screenshots, email attachments, and images downloaded by the web browser. It can also be deployed in other similar cases where the advantages of PowerShell modules and cmdlets can help to achieve results faster than writing an application from scratch.

Another Hackathon Success

Identifying a new way to deploy existing Accusoft solutions is one of the reasons why the hackathon event was first created. This script may not reinvent the wheel, but it will help developers save time and money in a lot of situations, which means fewer missed deadlines and faster time to market for software products. Developing unique approaches to existing problems can be difficult with deadlines and coding demands hanging over a developer’s head, so Accusoft’s hackathons are incredibly important for helping the company stay at the forefront of innovation. 

To learn more about how that innovation can help your team implement powerful new features into your applications, talk to one of our solutions experts today!

Accusoft’s ImageGear is a powerful image processing SDK integration that allows software developers to give their applications the ability to open, convert, and transform multiple image file formats. Given the complexity of image processing tasks, turning to a comprehensive SDK can save significant time and headaches in the software development cycle. Rather than building image manipulation features from scratch or seeking out multiple open source solutions for every processing need, developers can use ImageGear to add image processing essentials and whatever capabilities they need to keep their project on schedule.

8 Essential ImageGear Features

ImageGear delivers several noteworthy capabilities that are worth highlighting for developers looking to add image processing features to their applications. Here are a few of the most essential:

1. General Use Tools

Although ImageGear delivers a wide range of advanced image processing capabilities, it also provides a variety of conventional tools for image modification. Developers often incorporate these features into their application’s viewing interface, which allows users to easily alter images as needed. Some of the more commonly used tools include:

• Image cropping 
• Image rotation and resizing
• Thumbnail creation
• Sharpening/smoothing filters
• Contrast adjustment/gamma correction
• Red eye removal

2. Region of Interest Selection

Using ImageGear’s region of interest (ROI) features, it’s possible to create a freely shaped image area that can be targeted for additional processing. The ROI can be an ellipse or polygon shape, or it can be drawn freehand. Marking a specified area creates a 1-bit mask image to indicate which pixels will be affected by image processing algorithms.

3. Erosion/Dilation

ImageGear deploys mathematical morphology operations to help clean up and enhance binary images. Erosion works by removing layers of pixels from the inner and outer boundaries of defined regions in the foreground. This causes the white pixels in the foreground to shrink, which has the effect of making the area darker. Dilation performs the opposite function, increasing the boundaries of those same pixels to make the image region lighter. These functions are typically deployed in combination to remove objects or smooth borders on black and white or grayscale images.

4. Edge Detection

A key image processing capability, edge detection is used in pattern recognition, image matching, and 3D vision applications to identify the boundaries of objects within images. This function is particularly useful for image segmentation and data extraction tasks.

5. Speckle Removal

Speckling is the distinctive “salt and pepper” noise commonly found in many scanned or low resolution images. ImageGear has two different ways of removing speckles from an image to reduce noise and improve the overall quality without blurring details.

• Despeckle Method: Removes color noise from a 1-bit image by finding the average color value within the ROI and replacing the other pixels in the speckle area with this value.
• GeomDespeckle Method: Uses the Crimmins complementary hulling algorithm, which sends the image through a geometric filter that reduces speckle noise without compromising the edges of the original image.

6. ImageClean

The ImageClean function is a multi-faceted cleanup tool that uses several classes to perform common image processing tasks. Some of those tasks include:

• Inverting white text or auto-inverting black text on a white background.
• Auto-orientation or auto-cropping of an image.
• Cleaning borders.
• Dotted or solid line removal.
• Punch hold removal.

7. Background Correction

ImageGear can identify the best-fit plane for an image and then adjust the image luminance tilt accordingly, either by increasing or decreasing the image plane. This method is particularly effective at correcting illumination gradients in low-quality digitized images.

8. Image Effects

As part of its image processing capabilities, ImageGear provides a wide array of image effects that can be used to transform or modify image files. Developers can easily integrate these tools into their application’s viewer to allow end users to easily alter images. Some of these image effects include:

• Aging Effect: This effect adjusts image saturation and contrast to make an image appear worn and old. Noise and random vertical lines are also added to enhance the effect.
• Boost Effect: Often used to make older or faded images look new and more vibrant, this effect increases saturation, brightness, and contrast.
• Drop Shadow: This method adds a drop shadow to an image, which is often useful for setting an image apart from a background when combining visual elements.
• Gaussian Blur: Typically used to smooth out composited images, this effect blurs pixels to soften images and make them appear slightly (or extremely) out of focus.
• High Density Range Effect: This effect increases the contrast of shadow, highlight, and midtone areas separately, which mimics the human eye’s ability to adjust to lighting conditions rather than applying a uniform contrast adjustment.
• Lens Flare Effect: Commonly used to make images appear more dramatic or realistic, this method simulates a bright light reflecting within the camera lens.
• Solarize Effect: This effect sets a light threshold and then inverts the colors of any pixels that exceed that value. When applied to an image, it mimics the look of photographic film that was exposed to too much light during development.
• Toy Camera Effect: Often used to liven up an image, this effect emulates the distortions and imperfections created by using a low-quality camera lens in poor shooting conditions. 
• Sketch Effect: By blending the original image with a texture image, this effect can make the image look like it was sketched with a pencil or charcoal.
• Artistic Effects: This feature includes a series of effects that make images look as if they were hand painted. Two of these methods, the Pointillist and Splatter methods, use randomly generated pixel elements that cause the resulting image to be different each time the method is applied.

Expand Your Image Processing Capabilities with ImageGear

The features listed above only scratch the surface of ImageGear’s capabilities. In addition to essential image processing tools, the SDK also allows developers to add document features like annotation, conversion, compression, and full-page optical character recognition (OCR). With support for dozens of file formats, ImageGear gives software teams the tools they need to expand their application’s capabilities without wasting months of valuable development time. To get a first-hand look at what ImageGear can do for your .NET application, download a trial today.

Accusoft’s FormSuite for Structured Forms is a powerful SDK that allows you to integrate character recognition, form identification, document cleanup, and data capture capabilities into your software applications. You can set up unique form templates based on your processing needs and then design customized output architecture to extract data for delivery to a database or other downstream applications, helping you get to production faster or bring a new level of functionality to your legacy systems.

Setting all of that functionality up, however, can be a daunting task, especially if you’re working with a wide variety of form types. That’s why our FormSuite enablement services team is available to help you implement the features you need to ensure lasting results. Whether you’re facing bandwidth constraints or lack the resources to build expertise quickly, our FormSuite experts bridge the gap to make your project a success. Our enablement services team takes a five step approach to every engagement.

The Accusoft Approach to Enablement Services

Step 1: Thorough Architecture Review

We start by conducting a top to bottom analysis of your production or operational environment. Our review not only evaluates your system architecture and data workflow, but also breaks down the details of your potential use cases and existing work samples. 

Step 2: Identifying the Right Fit

Next, we determine the best FormSuite options based on your unique requirements and build you a custom enablement plan that will equip you with the instruction and assistance you need for a successful implementation.

Step 3: Training Your Team

Armed with information about your application’s specific requirements, we develop a customized training program to give your team a solid foundation for future development and ongoing maintenance. From guidance on form template creation and image enhancement to working with the forms API, we provide you with targeted guidance designed to help you solve potential challenges unique to your application environment.

Step 4: Implementation Support

Once the training is complete, you’ll have the foundational knowledge required to build the forms processing workflows your application requires. Our FormSuite experts remain on call to answer your questions so you can achieve your integration faster and ensure that you’re processing forms accurately.

Step 5: Preparing for Long-Term Success

Our enablement services prepare you to manage your implementation over the long term. We not only show you how to maintain the current environment, but also identify potential opportunities to deploy new features as your application scales in the future.

Keep the Partnership Going

Following your integration, we also provide ongoing support options to our customers whether or not they’ve utilized our enablement services. You get free Upgrade Support for 90 days after initial purchase, which includes email support and product upgrades. After that period, you can extend Upgrade Support, or elect to transition to our Standard Support or Priority Support annual plans.

To learn more about FormSuite for Structured Forms enablement services, talk to one of our solutions engineers. We’re ready to help you get your integration started!