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Image Processor Engine
| The image processor engine is the heart of PPP. Therefore it is very important to understand what the image processor engine is and how it works.
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| The image processor engine reads the input images, processes them according to the image processing settings, and generates the output images, the Exception List and the Good File List. The input images are the raw scanned images that are about to be processed. The image processing settings are a set of options and parameters that you set up before you start the image processing. These parameters affect how the image processor works.
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| When an error occurs, the image processor engine generates an exception. These exceptions can be investigated in the Exception List after processing. There is another list, the Good Files List, which is a list of the images considered to be good. Before processing, all input images are in the Selected Files List. After processing, all the images are either in the Exception List or in the Good Files List. There is only one exception to this rule: If the processing is terminated by the Stop button, the image processor leaves the unprocessed input images in the Selected Files List.
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| Positioning and Simple Mode
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| The image processor has two different modes: Positioning and Simple. In positioning mode, PPP performs a page detection, extracts the subimage and places it on a new, clean, white canvas. In simple mode, PPP does not detect the boundaries of the subimage; the whole image is the subimage.
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| The following processing parameters are common in both modes:
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| Page rotation parameters. The page rotation is the very first operation that the image processor performs on the input images. If Page rotation is turned on, the input images can be turned 90, -90, or 180 degrees. If you turn off Page rotation, the images will not be turned at all. The page rotation can be set on the Page Setup page of the main window.
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| Canvas size parameters. These specify the size of the output canvas. You can set the output canvas size to the same size as the input image, or you can specify a fixed size and orientation for your output images. The output canvas size can be set up on the Page Setup page of the main window.
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| Despeckle settings. These specify how the speckle removal engine should work. If speckle removal is turned off, all the speckles will remain on the image. If you want to remove the speckles, you can choose between single-pixel speckle removal and object removal. In the latter case, you specify the size range of the speckles to be removed by PPP. The Despeckle options can be set up on the Cleanup page of the main window.
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| Deskew option. If this is turned on, the image processor will automatically straighten rotated images. Performing deskew during image processing takes twice as much time as without deskew. If the skew is too big, lines and letters might be jagged after the deskew. If your images contain a lot of drawings, photos or sketches and very little text, the deskew might fail. PPP does not understand the content of your images, it is not as intelligent as a human. It is very hard to say how many degrees a picture is rotated by. On the other hand, PPP will deskew the textual documents without any problem. In a text-based document, letters are always side by side, forming straight long lines, which can be detected successfully. The Deskew can be turned on and off on the Cleanup page in the main window.
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| Edge cleanup parameters. These are located on the Cleanup page of the main window. PPP can remove the black border or the ragged, dirty edges of your images. If you turn on Edge cleanup, you can specify the size of the edges to remove from the input image. Edge cleanup is not a crop and does not cut the edge from the image. It just paints the border of the image with a solid white brush. If both Edge cleanup and Deksew are turned on, you can decide which one should be performed first. If the quality of your images is perfect and you do not have a black border, you can turn the edge cleanup feature off.
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| The two different modes of the image processor will be discussed in the sections that follow.
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