ABBYY Machine-Readable Forms User Manual

ABBYY FlexiCapture

A Guide to Creating

Machine-Readable Forms

ABBYY FlexiCapture

Dynamic Data Capture System

Table of Contents

What is a Form? ................................................................................................................ 3

Machine–Readable Forms ................................................................................................. 4

Form Completion Methods ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Elements of Machine–Readable Forms.................................................................................................................................................................................. 4

Text ........................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Entry Field ................................................................................................................................................................ 4

Checkmark Field....................................................................................................................................................... 5

Checkmark Group .................................................................................................................................................... 5

Reference Mark ......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Line Separator .......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Form Identifier ......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Picture ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Table ......................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Group of elements .................................................................................................................................................... 6

Types of Machine–Readable Form .................................................................................... 7

Dropout Forms ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Choosing the Right Color ........................................................................................................................................... 8

Black–and–White Forms with Raster Backgrounds ..................................................................................................................................................... 8

Black–and–White Forms with Raster Borders ................................................................................................................................................................. 8

Black–and–White Linear Forms ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 8

Choosing the Right Type of Form ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 8

General Requirements for Machine–Readable Forms ..................................................... 10

Form Background ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 10

Reference Mark ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Checkmark Field ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 11

Text Marking ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 11

Element Positioning ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 11

Print Quality ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Form Completion.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 12

Recommended Colors for Dropout Forms....................................................................................................................................................................... 13

ABBYY FlexiCapture

Dynamic Data Capture System

What is a Form?

Questionnaires, social security forms, polling slips, warranty cards are all different types of form used to collect different types of information.

How do forms differ from other types of documents?

1. A form always has a set number of fields

2. Each field may contain only a certain type of information, e.g. a "Last Name" field contains only last names (if completed correctly) and a "Date" field contains only dates.

Forms are used when information must be gathered from a large number of respondents. Manual information gathering is a long and tiresome process where typos and errors are almost inevitable, and machine–readable forms are used to automate this process.

Automated forms processing consists of the following stages:

1. Setting up the form–processing application (creating a template and specifying the fields to be recognized).

2. Acquiring form images (scanning).

3. Processing the form images (recognizing the images and validating the extracted data).

4. Exporting the extracted data to an external information system.

Automated forms processing is most effective on forms that meet certain requirements which are discussed in this chapter.

ABBYY FlexiCapture

Text over a Line

Text is entered over a line.

Letters in Frames

Letters are entered into conjoined frames.

Letters in Separate Frames

Letters are entered into isolated frames.

Letters on a Comb

Letters are entered over a comb.

Text in a Frame

Text is entered in a frame.

Text in a Frame with a Comb

Text is entered in a frame with a comb.

Dynamic Data Capture System

Machine–Readable Forms

To be able to read information on the forms, a form–processing application must do the following:

1. Determine the location of form elements.

2. Separate field contents from field borders, text marking, backgrounds, explanatory text, etc.

Machine–readable forms enable the program to carry out these tasks. In order for the first task to be carried out successfully, the forms must correspond to the form pattern or template, i.e. the location of all form elements must be identical on all forms of the same type. In order for the second task to be carried out successfully, the forms must be designed with automated input in mind, i.e. so that the program can easily distinguish between the data to be captured and such non–recognizable form elements as field borders, text marking, backgrounds, or explanatory text.

Form Completion Methods

A form may be completed in one of the following ways:

● by hand

● using a dot–matrix printer

● using a typewriter

● at a printing shop (here belong also forms completed using inkjet or laser printers with a resolution of

no less than 300 dpi)

● using a combination of the above

Elements of Machine–Readable Forms

The following elements may be present on a form:

Text

Tex t is an element of a machine–readable form that contains descriptive text: form title, field names, explanations, etc.

Entry Field

An entry field is an element of a machine–readable form into which text is entered by the person who completes the form. To facilitate text entry, entry fields may contain special text marking. Entry fields are usually accompanied by text that describes or explains the nature of the data to be entered.

Possible text marking types are listed in the table below.

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