Technical FAQs

Today’s high-speed forms processing workflows depend on accurate character recognition to capture data from document images. Rather than manually reviewing forms and entering data by hand, optical character recognition (OCR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR) allow developers to automate the data capture process while also cutting down on human error. Thanks to OCR segmentation, these tools are able to read a wide range of character types to keep forms workflows moving efficiently.

Recognizing Fonts

Deploying OCR to capture data is a complex undertaking due to the immense diversity of fonts in use. Modern character recognition software focuses on identifying the pixel patterns associated with specific characters rather than matching characters to existing libraries. This gives them the flexibility needed to discern multiple font types, but problems can still arise due to spacing issues that make it difficult to tell where one character ends and another begins.

Fonts generally come in one of two forms that impact how much space each character occupies. “Fixed” or “monospaced” fonts are uniformly spaced so that every character takes up the exact same amount of space on the page. While not quite as popular now in the era of word processing software and digital printing, fixed fonts were once the standard form of typeface due to the technical limitations of printing presses and typewriters. On a traditional typewriter, for example, characters were evenly spaced because each typebar (or striker) was a standardized size.

From an OCR standpoint, fixed fonts are easier to read because they can be neatly segmented. Each segmented character is the same size, no matter what letters, numbers, or symbols are used. In the example below, the amount of space occupied by the characters is determined by the number of characters used, not the shape of the characters themselves. This makes it easy to break the text down into a segmented grid for accurate recognition.

“Proportional” fonts, however, are not uniformly spaced. The amount of space taken up by each character is determined by the shape of the character itself. So while a w takes up the same space as an i in a fixed font, it takes up much more space in a proportional font.

The inherent characteristics of proportional fonts makes them more difficult to segment cleanly. Since each character occupies a variable amount of space, each segmentation box needs to be a different shape. In the example below, applying a standardized segmentation grid to the text would fail to cleanly separate individual characters, even though both lines feature the exact same character count.

Yet another font challenge comes from “kerning,” which reduces the space between certain characters to allow them to overlap. Frequently used in printing, kerning makes for an aesthetically pleasing font, but it can create serious headaches for OCR data capture because many characters don’t separate cleanly. In the example below, small portions of the W and the A overlap, which could create confusion for an OCR engine as it analyzes pixel data. While the overlap is very slight in this example, many fonts feature far more extreme kerning.

In order to get a clean reading of printed text for more accurate recognition results, OCR engines like the one built into Accusoft’s SmartZone SDK utilize segmentation to take an image and split it into several smaller images before applying recognition. This allows the engine to isolate characters from one another to get a clean reading without any stray pixels that could impact recognition results.

Much of this process is handled automatically by the software. SmartZone, for instance, has OCR segmentation settings and properties that are handled internally based on the image at hand. In some cases, however, those controls may need to be adjusted manually to ensure the highest level of accuracy. If a specific font routinely returns failed or low confidence recognition results, it may be necessary to use the OCR segmentation properties to adjust for font characteristics like spaces, overlaps (kerning), and blob size (which distinguishes which pixels are classified as noise).

Applying ICR Segmentation

All of the challenges associated with cleanly segmenting printed text are magnified when it comes to hand printed text. Characters are rarely spaced or even shaped consistently, especially when they’re drawn without the guidance of comb lines that provide clear separation for the person completing a form.

Since ICR engines read characters as individual glyphs, they can become confused if overlapping characters are interpreted as a single glyph. In the example below, there is a slight overlap between the A and the c, while the cross elements of the f and t are merged to form the impression of a single character.

SmartZone’s ICR segmentation properties can be used to pull apart overlapping characters and split merged characters for more accurate recognition results. This is also important for maintaining a consistent character count. If the ICR engine isn’t accounting for overlapped and merged characters, it could return fewer character results than are actually present in the image.

Enhance Your Data Forms Capture with SmartZone

Accusoft’s SmartZone SDK supports both zonal and full page OCR/ICR for forms processing workflows to quickly and accurately capture information from document images. When incorporated into a forms workflow and integrated with identification and alignment tools like the ones found in FormSuite, users can streamline data capture and processing by extracting text and routing it to the appropriate databases or application tools. SmartZone’s OCR supports 77 distinct languages from around the world, including a variety of Asian and Cyrillic characters. For a hands-on look at how SmartZone can enhance your data capture workflow, download a free trial today.

Having the right file conversion tools in place can make or break an application. Developers frequently face the challenge of managing multiple file types within a consolidated workflow. Without effective conversion tools, users are forced to rely on external applications that compromise both efficiency and security.

Out of all the file formats developers must account for, PDFs remain among the most important. The ability to convert a wide variety of document and image file types into PDF format can provide an application with unmatched versatility. In fact, PDF conversion support is one of the keys to unlocking better workflow performance, security, and collaboration.

5 Reasons to Convert Files to PDF

1. PDF Format is Consistent

Sharing documents and images across different devices and operating systems can sometimes create problems if the recipient lacks the up-to-date software necessary to view the file properly. This is a particular challenge with documents created using Microsoft Word since the formatting could look quite different across different versions of the program. Since PDF files are designed to look the same no matter how they’re being viewed, the format is ideal for sharing. Both documents and images can display equally well as PDFs, so converting files into this format is a quick and easy way to make them accessible for viewing.

2. PDF Files Are Easily Compressed

Sharing large image files can be a challenge for many organizations. High-resolution JPEG or TIFF files are often too large to share over email or web-based applications. Converting them to compressed PDFs is a quick way to reduce file size for easier sharing while still retaining a copy of the original file. Since the compressed version is in PDF format, there is less chance of version confusion when someone needs to access the original source image.

3. PDFs Are Widely Supported

Although PDFs once required specialized viewing software, thanks to JavaScript-based libraries like PDF.js, they can now be viewed by a conventional web browser. For all intents and purposes, this has made PDF a universal file format that can be viewed on any device. Converting a file into PDF ensures that it will be accessible to anyone who is granted access to it, regardless of the device or operating system they’re using.

4. PDFs Offer Security Protections

For many organizations, protecting privacy and confidential information is incredibly important. Converting document and image files into PDF format allows them to take advantage of the standard’s security features. Passwords can be set to authorize viewing and editing access to a file, which not only helps to ensure privacy but also limits who can make changes to a file so version control is easier to maintain. Files can also be converted into PDF/A format for secure archival purposes.

5. PDFs Support Annotation Markups

Most PDF viewing solutions support some form of annotation markups, which allows multiple contributors to make notes and comments on a file. Converting documents or images into a PDF facilitates this collaboration while safely preserving the original version of the file for future reference. Since PDF viewers provide a variety of annotation tools, they offer a great deal of flexibility when it comes to marking up images and documents without having to depend upon specialized software. Image and document files with additional annotation layers can also be converted into flattened PDFs for easier viewing.

Converting Files to PDF Using ImageGear

Accusoft’s ImageGear provides an extensive array of file conversion tools that allow developers to easily save multiple document and image file types into PDF format. With these conversion capabilities built into the back end of their applications, developers can help customers streamline their file management.

Converting Microsoft Documents to PDF

ImageGear supports the conversion of multiple Microsoft Office documents, including Word (DOCX/DOC), Excel (XLSX/XLS), and PowerPoint (PPTX/PPT). The conversion engine supports all text elements, raster images, and graphic shapes for Microsoft Office Open XML and Microsoft Office 97-2003 formats. It can convert the entire document into a PDF as well as any designated page or page ranges. The following examples show how this can be done using C#.

Converting Microsoft Word to PDF

To convert a Microsoft Word document in its entirety, the first step involves loading the ImageGear filters to create the input and output instances: 

ImGearFileFormats.Filters.Add(ImGearOffice.CreateWordFormat());
ImGearFileFormats.Filters.Add(ImGearPDF.CreatePDFFormat());

For the next step, the PDF library needs to be initialized:

ImGearPDF.Initialize();

The ImGearFileFormats.LoadDocument method is then used to read all pages of the file:

ImGearDocument igDocument;
using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(inputFileName, FileMode.Open,
       FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
{
   igDocument = ImGearFileFormats.LoadDocument(fileStream);
}
Finally, the ImGearFileFormats.SaveDocument method is used to save the output PDF: 
using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(outputFileName, FileMode.Create,
       FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
   ImGearFileFormats.SaveDocument(igDocument, fileStream, 0,
       ImGearSavingModes.OVERWRITE, ImGearSavingFormats.PDF, null);
}

Converting Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint to PDF

The process for converting Excel and PowerPoint files follows the same basic format as converting Word files. First, initialize the input, then modify the sample code from above for the appropriate formats.

To initialize Excel:

ImGearFileFormats.Filters.Add(ImGearOffice.CreateExcelFormat());

To modify sample’s open file dialog for XLSX/XLS extensions:

ofd.Filter = @"DOCX files (*.docx)|*.docx|XLSX files 
(*.xlsx)|*.xlsx|XLS files (*.xls)|*.xls";

To initialize PowerPoint:

ImGearFileFormats.Filters.Add(ImGearOffice.CreatePowerPointFormat());

To modify sample’s open file dialog for PPTX/PPT extensions:

ofd.Filter = @"DOCX files (*.docx)|*.docx|PPTX files 
(*.pptx)|*.pptx|PPT files (*.ppt)|*.ppt";

Converting an Image File to PDF

ImageGear PDF supports the conversion of multiple image types into PDF format just as easily as it converts documents, but the process looks a bit different in code. After initializing PDF support for ImageGear.NET, the following C# example can be used to load an image file and then save it as a PDF page. The conversion process can be used for any file format that ImageGear supports.

using System;
using System.IO;

using ImageGear.Core;
using ImageGear.Formats;
using ImageGear.Formats.PDF;
using ImageGear.Evaluation;

public void SaveImageAsPDF(string inputFilePathName, string outputFilePathName)
       {
           try
           {
               const int FIRST_PAGE = 0;

               // Initialize evaluation license.
               ImGearEvaluationManager.Initialize();
               ImGearEvaluationManager.Mode = ImGearEvaluationMode.Watermark;

               // Initialize common formats.
               ImageGear.Formats.ImGearCommonFormats.Initialize();

               // Add support for PDF and PS files.
               ImGearFileFormats.Filters.Insert(0, ImGearPDF.CreatePDFFormat());
               ImGearPDF.Initialize();

               // Load required page from a file.
               ImGearPage page = null;
               using (Stream stream = new FileStream(inputFilePathName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
                   page = ImGearFileFormats.LoadPage(stream, FIRST_PAGE);

               // Save page as PDF document to a file.
               using (Stream stream = new FileStream(outputFilePathName, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
                   ImGearFileFormats.SavePage(page, stream, FIRST_PAGE, ImGearSavingModes.OVERWRITE, ImGearSavingFormats.PDF);
           }
           catch (Exception exp)
           {
               // Write error to Console window.
               Console.WriteLine(exp.Message);
           }
           finally
           {
               // Call PDF engine terminating in any case.
               ImGearPDF.Terminate();
           }
       }

Add Conversion Flexibility to Your Application with ImageGear

Accusoft’s ImageGear provides applications with comprehensive conversion, annotation, and viewing support for PDF files. As part of the broader ImageGear collection, it also delivers powerful image processing capabilities and support for multiple document and image file types. These features can help turn any application into a robust document management platform capable of streaming workflows and empowering collaboration.

If you’re ready to see how the SDK will function as part of your development environment, start your free trial and get straight to the code.

Video playback has become a fundamental feature in today’s applications, mirroring the shift in user tastes and the widespread presence of multimedia in our digital era. As the appetite for video content rises—spanning tutorials, entertainment, online lessons, marketing assets, and content created by users—applications that provide seamless and adaptive video playback resonate with these needs, boosting user engagement and loyalty.

Additionally, video conveys intricate concepts effectively, resonates with those who are visual learners, and often elevates the user journey with a deeper, more engaging medium. Embedding powerful video playback capabilities can help applications stand out from the crowd, ensuring that they align with modern user demands and stay relevant in a video-driven digital environment.

Introducing PrizmDoc Video Playback

Recognizing the significance of video, the Accusoft engineering team has enhanced PrizmDoc with video playback capabilities. While PrizmDoc already smoothly integrates document viewing features into web applications, this latest addition empowers developers to seamlessly incorporate video features into their software. With PrizmDoc’s video playback, the days of hosting videos on external platforms or depending on poorly secured software plugins to embed videos are gone.

The new video playback feature augments PrizmDoc’s reputation for efficiency and top-tier performance, ensuring the delivery of premium video content with barely any processing delays and supporting a variety of file formats. Developers can effortlessly embed video playback using a straightforward API call, bypassing the need to construct intricate video functionality from the ground up.

Video Playback Benefits for Government Applications

Government agencies stand to gain substantially by integrating video playback capabilities into their applications’ document viewing systems. Here’s an in-depth look at the advantages this integration can bring:

Improved Communication and Collaboration

Incorporating video playback allows government agencies to revolutionize their documentation techniques, creating content that is not only captivating but also densely packed with essential information. This multimedia integration is advantageous in many ways: from presentations that need to capture the audience’s attention, to training modules that benefit from visual aids to ensure clearer understanding, to public service announcements where visuals can often communicate more effectively than words alone.

But the utility of videos extends beyond just the content. They serve as a dynamic conduit for enhanced communication, promoting more profound interactions. When government staff use videos, they open doors to a more direct and interactive dialogue with citizens and various stakeholders. This interactive platform, fostered by video content, encourages shared understanding and insights, catalyzing cooperative ventures. Moreover, it ensures that the core message of the agency is transmitted with clarity, reducing ambiguities and fostering trust between the government and its constituents. Videos are not just tools for information delivery but also instruments for building bridges and fostering collaborations.

Better Transparency and Oversight 

Government agencies can greatly enhance transparency and accountability in their operations by leveraging video playback in their applications. Recording committee sessions and admissible meetings ensures that even nuanced details of discussions are captured for future reference. For independent software vendors (ISVs) supporting the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), integrating video playback into their applications provides an invaluable tool for their government customers. Agencies can monitor access to videos, ensuring that the integrity of video files is maintained while still making them available in accordance with FOIA requirements. 

More importantly, constituents who may not have the opportunity to attend meetings in person can still remain informed by viewing these video recordings. This fosters an environment of inclusivity and ensures that all citizens can be privy to government proceedings. Additionally, video integrations provide government agencies with detailed logs, allowing them to track file accesses, view detailed histories, and maintain a comprehensive understanding of the data’s interactions. This systematic organization not only aids in efficient operations but also upholds the tenets of transparency and accountability.

Enhanced Control

Providing access to recorded video content, though seemingly straightforward, brings with it a set of challenges, especially for government agencies. Unauthorized downloading or sharing of these recordings can jeopardize the integrity and security of the content. By embedding video playback functionalities directly within their applications, agencies gain a robust mechanism to regulate access, ensuring that only authorized users can view the content. The option to download files can be removed entirely, making it much easier to control how videos are viewed and shared.

More importantly, these integrations allow agencies to generate comprehensive audit trails, documenting every instance of access, and guaranteeing that the sanctity and confidentiality of the content are preserved. Many of these video files could hold sensitive or classified information, the distribution of which, without proper authorization, could have legal repercussions. Through strict controls on how these video files are accessed, viewed, and shared, government applications are better positioned to adhere to legal and regulatory stipulations, reinforcing data security and public trust.

Boosting Efficiency and Productivity

Video content can provide government personnel with a streamlined means to access crucial information. By offering data in an easily digestible visual and auditory format, videos facilitate quicker comprehension and thereby expedite decision-making processes. This ensures that government functions remain nimble and responsive in an ever-evolving landscape.

Beyond information dissemination, video playback can revolutionize operational tasks. Specifically, when it comes to onboarding new employees, standardized video training modules offer a consistent and efficient approach. These modules allow newcomers to familiarize themselves with institutional practices at their own pace, ensuring uniformity in training. Additionally, updates to reflect new policies or insights can be seamlessly integrated, making the training process both adaptable and up-to-date.

Augmented Transparency and Accountability

Videos provide a concrete and unambiguous record of governmental actions and decisions. This visual documentation brings greater clarity to operations, reducing misunderstandings and ensuring that agencies are held accountable for their actions. Providing video evidence helps to build trust, reinforcing that government agencies are operating transparently and in good faith.

Furthermore, modern video platforms offer more than just passive viewing experiences; they are interactive hubs that enable direct communication between the government and its citizens. Through these platforms, agencies can actively seek feedback, opinions, and suggestions from the public, ensuring that their policies and initiatives resonate with and address the genuine concerns of citizens. Video-enabled GovTech applications can also serve as continuous channels of information, allowing agencies to keep constituents regularly informed about new programs, updates, and changes, further solidifying the commitment to transparency and open governance.

Enhance GovTech Applications with PrizmDoc Video Playback

PrizmDoc’s new video playback feature offers numerous advantages for government applications. With this new capability, GovTech developers can help government agencies seamlessly integrate and access video content directly within their applications, removing the reliance on third-party platforms or external tools. Users ultimately benefit from a streamlined and integrated workflow, especially when drawing connections between official documents and relevant videos. By centralizing these functions and reducing associated expenses, GovTech software developers can focus their efforts and resources on other features, ensuring that their applications stay ahead in a continuously modernizing administrative environment.

To learn more about how PrizmDoc’s video playback feature can benefit your GovTech application, talk to one of Accusoft’s PrizmDoc specialists today.

Today’s applications need tremendous versatility when it comes to document management. Developers are expected to deliver tools that can handle multiple file types and have the ability to share them securely with internal users and people outside the organization. As more companies transition to remote-first work environments, online (and secure) collaboration tools are becoming a must-have feature. One of the major challenges facing developers is how to adapt existing document technologies and practices to an increasingly interconnected environment without creating additional risks.

Rendering and Conversion Challenges of Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office (MSO) files have long presented problems for organizations looking for greater flexibility when it comes to viewing and marking up documents. This stems in part from the widespread reliance on the Office software itself, which held a staggering 87.5 percent share of the productivity software market according to a 2019 Gartner estimate. Companies of all sizes across multiple industries rely on programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but there are many instances where they would like to be able to share those documents without also surrendering control of the source files.

The challenge here is twofold. On the one hand, if an organization shares an MSO file with a client or vendor, there’s no guarantee that the recipient will be able to view it properly. They may not have access to Office, in which case they can’t open the file at all, or they may be using an outdated version of the software. While they may still be able to open and view the file, it may not display as originally intended if it uses features not included in previous editions of Office.

On the other hand, however, sharing files outside a secure application environment always creates additional risk. Microsoft Office documents are notoriously attractive targets for hackers seeking to embed malicious code into files, and older, unpatched versions of the software contain numerous known vulnerabilities. Sharing MSO files with an outside party could quickly result in the file being exposed to a compromised machine or network. There’s also a question of version control and privacy, as a downloaded file could easily be copied, edited, or even distributed without authorization.

Unfortunately, it has proved quite difficult to natively render MSO documents in another application. Anyone who has had the misfortune of trying to view or edit a DOCX file in Google Docs will understand the challenges involved. While it’s certainly possible to render MSO files in a different application, the end result is often a little off the mark. Fonts may be rendered incorrectly, formatting could be slightly (or drastically) off, and entire document elements (such as tables, text fields, or images) could be lost if the application doesn’t know how to render them properly.

Rendering MSO Files Natively with PrizmDoc Viewer

As a fully-featured HTML5 viewing integration, Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Viewer can be deployed as an MSO file viewer that renders them like any other document type. However, this doesn’t provide a true native viewing experience, which many businesses require for various compliance reasons. Fortunately, the PrizmDoc Server’s Content Conversion Service (CCS) allows applications to natively render MSO documents with a simple API call.

The MSO rendering feature allows PrizmDoc to communicate directly with an installed version of Microsoft Office, which ensures that every element of the file is rendered accurately within the HTML5 viewer. For example, a DOCX file opened in Microsoft Word should look identical to the same document rendered within an application by PrizmDoc Viewer. Once the document is accurately rendered, it can be shared with other users inside or outside an organization. This allows people to view and even markup MSO files without the original source file ever having to leave the secure application environment. It’s an ideal solution for reducing security risks and eliminating the possibility of version confusion.

Converting Additional MSO File Elements

In many instances, organizations need to share MSO files that have already been marked up or commented upon. This could include Word documents with multiple tracked changes or PowerPoint slides with extensive speaker notes. Those additional markups could be important elements that need to be shared or reviewed, so it’s critical to include them during the conversion and rendering process.

Using the server’s CCS, PrizmDoc Viewer can convert Word documents with accepted or rejected markup changes when converting the file into a different format (such as converting an MSO file to PDF) or rendering it for viewing in the application itself. The same capabilities extend to PowerPoint presentations with speaker notes. When converting these MSO files, the outputted version can consist of slides only or include the speaker notes along with them.

These conversion and rendering capabilities provide developers tremendous flexibility when they’re integrating viewing features into their applications. They can easily deploy them to help their customers collaborate and share MSO files without having to remove them from a secure environment. It’s also a winning feature for end users, who don’t need to worry about downloading files or having access to the latest version of Microsoft Office.

Improve Your Document Capabilities with PrizmDoc Viewer

With its extensive file conversion, redaction, and annotation capabilities, Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Viewer is an essential integration for any document management platform that requires an MSO file viewer. It provides support for dozens of file types to give applications the flexibility needed to meet the demands of today’s complex workflows and improve efficiency. As an HTML5 viewer, it can be integrated into any web-based solution with minimal development effort, which frees up valuable resources developers need to focus on the innovative features that will help set their applications apart in a competitive market.

To learn more about PrizmDoc Viewer’s robust feature set, have a look at our detailed fact sheet. If you’re ready to see what our HTML5 viewer will look like within your application environment, download a free trial and start integrating features right away.

Security is everything for organizations when it comes to their sensitive data assets. Whether it’s vital documents, account passwords, or proprietary financial formulas, essential business information needs to be well-protected as companies continue to incorporate digital platforms into their operations. Developers can support this critical goal by providing secure digital vault applications that allow their customers to manage and use information assets without exposing them to unnecessary risks.

The heightened emphasis on security has made digital vault services quite popular in recent years. In order to maximize the potential of these security platforms, however, developers must integrate the right tools for managing multiple file types ranging from standard documents to complex financial spreadsheets.

What is a Digital Vault?

Much like its physical counterpart, a digital vault is a secure repository for storing vital assets in one easy-to-manage and fully-encrypted location. In some respects, these platforms are similar to information management services or cloud-based storage, but they set themselves apart by emphasizing security and access control. Digital vaults are frequently used for estate planning thanks to their ability to securely store account log-in information and vital documents, but they’re also popular with high-net worth individuals and organizations that need a safe place for sensitive financial data.

The core feature of a digital vault is its ability to prevent unauthorized access to materials stored inside them. They do this by strictly monitoring access rights at multiple levels. Just because someone has access to the vault itself, for instance, doesn’t mean they have access to everything it contains. The files and documents stored within the digital vault can all be set with their own access permissions. These controls mirror those used in a physical bank vault, such as:

• Requiring manual authorization from an administrator to access data.
• Implementing dual key control mechanisms.
• Limiting access to certain times of day.
• Segmenting access to relevant assets only.

Managing Digital Vault Information

Digital vaults also make the process of managing data much more secure. Since all of the assets stored within the vault are protected by encryption, they can be shared through a portal rather than downloaded, copied, or transmitted over poorly secured channels like email. The data itself never leaves the protective confines of the vault, and the security controls track who has been granted access when files are shared. This makes it easy to monitor activity and ensure that confidential files are not broadly distributed.

In order to facilitate this access, however, digital vault developers need to build viewing and editing tools into their applications. Without the ability to open and view a document within the web-based portal, for instance, users will be forced to rely on external software. This defeats the whole purpose of a digital vault, as it exposes the file to whatever security vulnerabilities that application might possess.

Integrating HTML5 viewing capabilities into their vault’s web portal allows developers to let their customers review documents and even make annotation markups without having to remove the file from a secure, encrypted environment. For most documents and images, this is a relatively straightforward process using a series of API calls to render the file within the browser.

The Challenge of Excel Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, however, frequently pose a major challenge to digital vault platforms. Unlike documents, spreadsheets are often designed to be interactive and can contain sensitive financial calculations within cell fields. Simply sharing a static, print preview image of a spreadsheet might be helpful for reviewing financial records, but it’s not very useful to someone who needs to enter fresh data into the formulas to calculate new results.

While the XLSX file could be made available for download to anyone who is authorized to use it, this defeats the purpose of having it stored in a digital vault. Not only would it be impossible to track the downloaded file, which creates serious data security risks, but allowing multiple copies of the file to proliferate will quickly lead to version confusion.

Enhancing Spreadsheet Functionality with PrizmDoc Cells

Digital vault developers can easily solve their spreadsheet challenges by integrating Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Cells into their application. A completely web-based spreadsheet viewer and editor, PrizmDoc Cells provides native XLSX file support without any external dependencies. The API-based integration allows users to open their existing Excel files to view, edit, and add comments completely within the application’s web portal. PrizmDoc Cells provides a familiar interface that developers can customize to meet the specific needs of their customers.

That same customization extends to the spreadsheet elements themselves. A digital vault provider may not want to allow users to have full access to every element of an Excel file. For instance, an organization may be fine with allowing someone to enter new data and calculate results in the spreadsheet, but not want anyone to be able to view the proprietary formulas buried within the cell fields. When integrating PrizmDoc Cells, developers can control what aspects of the XLSX file are actually shared. This makes it easy to keep formulas and other data locked in place within the spreadsheet and secure from unauthorized viewing.

Unlock Your Digital Vault’s Potential with PrizmDoc Cells

Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Cells gives digital vault developers the ability to control how spreadsheet files are shared and managed within their secure application environment. By integrating native Excel support, they can sever their dependency on Microsoft Office and other potentially insecure software platforms and enhance the value of their digital vault services. With PrizmDoc Cells, their customers can easily access, review, and edit their spreadsheets without exposing them to additional security risks or version confusion.

To learn more about the versatile functionality of PrizmDoc Cells, check out our detailed fact sheet for an overview of critical features and use cases. If you’re ready to test the integration in your application environment, download a free trial today in an easy-to-deploy Docker file.

Automated data capture tools are an essential feature of today’s business applications. Without the ability to quickly extract information from incoming forms and documents, organizations will struggle to keep their records, databases, and customer-facing software up-to-date. While software SDKs like Accusoft’s SmartZone can deliver powerful optical character recognition (OCR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR) to help applications accurately capture the information they need, these tools were not designed to operate in isolation. To get the best performance out of them, they need to be incorporated into a comprehensive and well-designed forms processing workflow.

Building an Efficient and Effective Forms Processing Workflow

Although data capture is often the primary objective of forms processing, a number of elements need to be in place for an application to be able to deploy SmartZone’s powerful OCR/ICR functionality. The first step involves the creation of form templates that can be used both for identifying incoming scanned forms and for defining field regions on the page from which data can be extracted. Building this library of templates provides a road map of sorts for the recognition process.

After form images are acquired, either from pre-existing digital documents or newly scanned images, they may need to be enhanced or cleaned up to ensure the best recognition results. Operations such as binarization, despeckling, deskewing, and line removal can all improve the data capture process, especially in the case of scanned documents. Older documents frequently include a great deal of image noise when scanned into digital format, which can make it difficult for an OCR/ICR engine to properly segment and read characters cleanly.

Once a form image has undergone enhancement, it can be matched and aligned with the correct template to ensure that the SmartZone recognition engine will be able to obtain a clean field clip. Scanned images can be overlaid via an alignment algorithm that performs minor adjustments to match it exactly with the correct template. This step is crucial because the data capture process is set up to read the field areas identified by the template rather than recalibrating for each form. If the alignment is off, the engine will not get a clean read of the characters, which could result in inaccurate recognition results.

After the form is identified and aligned, additional enhancement and cleanup operations can be performed on the specific areas of the form that contain information to be extracted. This typically means individual field areas where text or other characters have been entered. The locations to be cleaned up can be designated during the template creation process when data extraction zones are defined. In some instances, a processing workflow may skip the initial full-page enhancement and instead only perform clean-up on areas where data capture will be carried out. This approach is often more efficient from a processing standpoint, especially when targeted, zonal recognition is being applied.

Form image dropout can also be performed at this stage, which involves the removal of image content like signature lines, text field boxes, comb lines, or other extraneous guiding content. Here again, proper form alignment is crucial. If the form is slightly “off” from the template, valuable character content could be removed, making accurate recognition much more difficult. Good form dropout tools should also be able to reconstruct characters that lose pixel data during the dropout process, which is common for characters that have an element that overlaps form lines (such as the lower half of a “j” or a “y,” which might otherwise be read as an “i” or a “v” if not repaired prior to recognition).

SmartZone’s Role in the Recognition Phase of Application Workflows

After a form is acquired, enhanced, identified, and aligned, it can be passed along to the next stage of the workflow for text recognition using SmartZone OCR/ICR. There are a few options that can be selected at this point to help improve recognition accuracy and faster data capture performance.

1. Select Character Sets

SmartZone supports a wide variety of languages and alphanumeric character sets. Realistically, only a few of these sets will need to be used at any one time. Selecting only the sets needed for a particular form will improve recognition accuracy and speed. For instance, there’s no need to have support of Cyrillic languages (like Russian or Greek) enabled if all of the forms being processed are in English.

2. Designate Field Types

SmartZone can designate the expected format of text found in specific fields on a template. Rather than reading each field out of context and extracting the contents without knowing whether or not it’s been filled in correctly, field types can be set to values such as date, email, currency, phone number, or Social Security Number. Regular expressions can also be established for more customizable results. If the character content of the field doesn’t match the designated field type, SmartZone will immediately return an exception and move on rather than trying to recognize and extract the incorrect data. Setting this parameter can greatly improve both accuracy and speed.

3. Set Minimum Character Confidence

Every character SmartZone reads is assigned a confidence value, which reflects the OCR/ICR engine’s assessment of its recognition accuracy. A lower value means that there is a higher likelihood that a character was incorrectly identified. Setting a minimum character confidence value ensures that any character result below that value will be rejected and replaced with a designated rejection character. In practice, this control is used to determine which characters require a manual review following recognition. Setting a high confidence value will ensure higher recognition accuracy, but will likely lead to more exceptions that need to be reviewed by a human.

SmartZone Recognition Results

After character recognition is performed, results can be returned for the character, text line, or text block level. This data can then be passed along to the next stage of a business workflow or used to populate databases connected to the application. Operation instructions, identification, and image areas defined can be transferred to other components for additional forms processing or stored in memory for later access using SmartZone’s Read From Stream or Write From Stream functions.

Getting Started with SmartZone

With support for both OCR and ICR data capture, Accusoft’s SmartZone SDK can serve a vital role in high-performance forms processing applications. The powerful OCR engine can recognize multiple languages, including select Asian, African, and Indian characters. Capable of performing full page or zonal text extraction, SmartZone also includes a variety of customization features that can improve accuracy and recognition speed. Learn more about this versatile SDK’s features and use cases in our product fact sheet.

As the software industry continues to transition to web-based applications and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, developers are prioritizing flexibility more than ever. Building a unique and compelling customer experience frequently requires versatile software toolkits that are easy to customize and adapt to changing requirements.  Customizing the PrizmDoc Viewer interface makes this simple.

Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Viewer is an HTML5 viewing integration that not only provides an extensive array of viewing, conversion, and annotation features, but was also designed with customization in mind. Creative developers have several options at their disposal when they deploy this innovative solution within their applications.

PrizmDoc Viewer Interface Basics

Once PrizmDoc Viewer is integrated into an application, developers can deploy the pre-built user interface to start viewing documents and image files. Out of the box, the viewer consists of a number of components:

• Tab Navigation: PrizmDoc Viewer can perform a variety of different functions, such as basic viewing, annotation, and redaction. The Tab Navigation indicates which function is currently active.
• Tab Pane: Each tabset selected in the Navigation features a specific set of tools. They can be configured to display either vertically or horizontally.
• Status Bar: This component indicates the current page being viewed. By selecting a different page number, a user can quickly jump to another document page.
• Dialog: Extended options and settings are displayed in this menu area.
• Context Menu: Used primarily for markups, this menu allows users to change annotation properties.
• Page List: The core element of the viewer control, this component is where the document or image itself is rendered for viewing.

Any of these tabs can be disabled easily by altering the configuration parameters. For example, to disable the navigation tab for redaction, the following code could be applied:

var pluginOptions = {
    uiElements: {
        redactTab: false
    }
};

Customizing the Viewer

While developers can simply deploy the viewer interface as-is, PrizmDoc Viewer provides extensive customization features that allow them to change almost every aspect of the viewing experience. The viewer’s functionality itself is built upon the Viewer API, so changing different elements of the viewing interface doesn’t alter the rendering performance or other core PrizmDoc Viewer functionality.

Here are just a few quick customization options that can be added to the viewer with minimal effort:

Custom Buttons

Adding a customized button that performs a specific task can greatly improve the viewer’s functionality for end users. Developers can quickly add custom buttons with a bit of JavaScript and uploading an SVG icon for display.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The PrizmDoc Viewer interface already supports a variety of keyboard shortcuts that allow users to easily scroll up and down the page, adjust the zoom level, and delete selected marks. Developers can alter the existing key bindings to enable new shortcuts or create their own.

Customize Style

In order to provide a consistent brand experience, many developers choose to alter the look and feel of the viewer to match the rest of their application. PrizmDoc Viewer provides extensive controls that allow them to alter image resources, colors, toolbar sizing, icons, and more.

Reorganize Menus

All of the menus and navigation elements can be adjusted based on application needs. Developers can add or remove different viewer templates that feature unique elements for specific use cases. Each template could use different styles and feature custom tabs or markup tools.

Create/Customize Mouse Tools

Unique mouse tools can be created along with a custom button within the UI, although PrizmDoc Viewer comes with a variety of predefined mouse tools that can be deployed and customized. Creating a new mouse tool is a quick two-step process that involves some JavaScript code that first defines the tool and then updates the UI to add a button for it (usually in the annotation tab pane).

Step 1

// Create the new mouse tool. var myTool = PCCViewer.MouseTools.createMouseTool(
                 "PinkLine",
                 PCCViewer.MouseTool.Type.LineAnnotation);

// Configure the tool to draw a pink (#FF69B4) line that is 10 pixel thick myTool.getTemplateMark()
    .setColor("#FF69B4")
    .setThickness(10);

Step 2

<!-- The following markup will create a button that enables use
     of the mouse tool named "PinkLine".

     The custom attributes that are used:
      \* data-pcc-mouse-tool="PinkLine" - specifies that the button selects the mouse tool named "MyLineTool"
      \* data-pcc-context-menu="false" - specifies that a context menu is not shown for this mouse tool
     -->
<button>
    data-pcc-mouse-tool="PinkLine"
    data-pcc-context-menu="false"
    class\="pcc-icon pcc-icon-annotate-line"
    title="Pink Line Tool"\></button>

Build a Customized UI

Developers may decide that the default PrizmDoc Viewer UI isn’t quite right for their application needs. In such cases, they can easily use the available components to build a customized viewing UI that is better suited to their application and end users. Creating a custom interface allows developers to strategically place menu and button elements to improve application workflows and conform to their own user experience priorities.

Embrace the Power of Flexibility

Turning to a third-party solution for an application’s viewing and imaging needs doesn’t mean a developer has to give up control over their application’s user experience. Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Viewer delivers powerful viewing, conversion, and annotation features in a fully customizable package that can be adapted to a wide range of application needs. Developers can use the available tools to craft a unique viewing experience from the ground up or utilize the built-in viewing interface to get their solution up and running quickly while putting off customization until later in their development cycle.

PrizmDoc Viewer’s versatile HTML5 rendering technology makes it an ideal integration for web-based applications that need the flexibility to adapt to changing user expectations. Thanks to those customization options, the application a developer brings to market can evolve over time to support a wide range of additional features throughout the product’s lifecycle. To experience the customizable power of PrizmDoc Viewer firsthand, download your free trial today.