Document & Record Lifecycle Software
FileHold Document Management Software supports over 300 document scanners from the industry leading vendors below, as well many other vendors who benefit from ISIS driver support from EMC-Captiva Corporation:
- Fujitsu http://www.fujitsu.com/global
- Canon Canon Scanners
- Kodak Kodak Document Scanners
- HP http://www.hp.com
- Bell and Howell http://www.bbhscanners.com
This technical glossary of terms, presented in alphabetical order, is a resource for FileHold prospects who may want to add scanning to their document management software. This may be especially helpful for those considering the conversion of an existing archive of physical records into an electronic record repository.
This Glossary acts as a resource of Scanning and Imaging term definitions. Use browser find (Ctrl+F) to search for keywords and definitions in this list.
A
Anti-aliasing - A process used to remove the
stair stepping effect found in diagonal lines of an image. Involves
inserting dots of an in-between tone along the edges.
Aspect Ratio - The relative proportion of the
length and width of an image. For example, if you scan an original
that measures 4 by 6 inches, it will have an aspect ratio of
4:6, or 2:3.
Attribute - Characteristics of a page or character,
such as underlining, boldface, or font, that can be captured
by an optical character recognition (OCR) program.
Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) - A device
attached to a scanner that automatically feeds in one page at
a time, allowing the scanning of multiple pages.
Auto Trace - A feature found in many object-oriented
image editing programs, such as Adobe Illustrator, that allows
you to trace a scanned image and convert it to an outline or
vector format.
B
Batch - Actions carried out consecutively on
a set of files.
Binary - Base-two arithmetic, which uses only
1's and 0's to represent numbers. 0001 represents 1 decimal,
0010 represents 2 decimal and so forth. Binary numbers are used
indirectly to refer to color depth, as in 24-bit or 8-bit color.
Bit - The abbreviation for binary digit, either
0 or a 1. Scanners typically use multiple bits to represent
information about each pixel of an image.
Bit Depth - The number of bits used to represent
colors or tones.
Bitmap - An image represented as pixels in a row and column
format. (Note that Adobe refers to a bitmap as a two-color image.
C
Calibration - A way of correcting for the variation
in output of a device such as a printer or monitor when compared
to the original image data from the scanner.
Carriage - The scanner component that moves
down a page to capture an image.
CMYK - The abbreviation for cyan, magenta,
yellow, and black.
Compression - Squeezing a file (especially
an image) into a more efficient form to reduce the amount of
storage space required.
Contrast - The range between the lightest
and darkest tones in an image. In a high-contrast image, the
shades fall at the extremes of the range between white and black.
In a low contrast image, the tones are closer together.
D
Data Compression - A method of reducing the
size of files, such as image files, by representing the sets
of binary numbers in the file with shorter string that conveys
the same information. Many image editing programs offer some
sort of image compression as an optical mode when saving a file
to disk.
Digitize - To convert analog information,
such as a continuous tone image, to a binary form that can be
processed by a computer.
Dot - A unit used to represent the smallest
element a printer can image, but sometimes used to represent
the resolution of other devices, such as monitors or scanners.
Dots Per Inch (DPI) - The resolution of a
printed page, expressed in the number of printer dots in an
inch, abbreviated dpi. Scanner resolution is also expressed,
somewhat in accurately in dpi.
Down sampling - To reduce the amount of information
in an image, usually to make it smaller or to discard some colors
when changing bit depth. Also used when reducing the number
of pixels in an image.
Dynamic Range - The range of densities between
the highlights and shadows of an image.
E
Export - To transfer an image to another format.
F
Filter - An image transform tool used to process
an image; for example, to sharpen, blur, or diffuse it. Often
this is a plug-in in an image editor, but filters are also built
into scanning software or hardware.
G
Gamma - A way of representing the contrast
of an image, shown as the slope of a curve showing tones from
white to black.
Gamma Correction or Gamma Compensation - The
process of preconditioning or adjusting an image to correct
for the gamma of the device used to reproduce the image, such
as a printer or display screen. Without gamma compensation,
the image will look too dark when printed or displayed.
Gang Scan - The process of scanning more than
one picture at a time, used when images are of the same density
and color balance range.
Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) - A compressed
image format popular on the Web. GIF was the first commonly
used image format, but was largely replaced by JPEG.
Grayscale - Gray values in an image.
H
Halftoning - A method of representing the gray
tones of an image by varying the size of the dots used to show
the image.
I
Interpolation - A method of changing the size,
resolution, or colors in an image by calculating the pixels
used to represent the new image from the old ones. It is also
being used to increase bit-depth claims on scanners (as in "Enhanced
Bit Depth" or "Enhanced Color").
Invert - To reverse an image's tones to its
opposite value: to make a negative.
J
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) - The
JPEG format offers a compression scheme that makes the image
file smaller than files in other formats by discarding some
of the image information.
L
Landscape - The orientation of a page in which
the longest dimension is horizontal.
Legal size - Paper or other media that is 8 1/2 inches wide and 14 inches long.
M
Moire- In scanning, an objectionable pattern
caused by interference of halftone screens, often produced when
rescanning a halftone and the sampling frequency of the scanner
(spi) interferes with the halftone or dither pattern of the
original.
Monochrome - Having a single color. Typically
refers to a black and white image, but could be any single color
image.
N
Noise - Random information that distorts an
image, especially the background distortion of an analog image
before it is converted to digital format.
O
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - The process
of converting printed characters into the ASCII characters and
other attributes of a bitmapped image of text.
Optical Resolution - The resolution of a scanner
that is calculated by dividing the width of the scanned area
by the number of pixels in the CCD. Optical resolution is also
often called true resolution and does not include any interpolation
to increase pixels.
P
Pixel - A picture element of an image that refers to
a single dot with in a digital photograph. A photograph is made
up of thousands of pixels.
Pixels Per Inch (ppi) - The number of pixels
captured per inch by a scanner. This is a more accurate rate
term than dpi (dots per inch) when applied to scanners because
scanners capture pixels.
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - A lossless
file format created to overcome deficiencies of the Graphics
Interchange Format (GIF), such as the limited number of colors.
Portrait - The orientation of a page in which
the longest dimension is vertical.
Preview Scan - A preliminary scan that can be used to define
the exact area for the final scan. A low- resolution image of
the full page or scanning area as shown, and a frame of some
type is used to specify the area to be included in the final
scan.
R
Raster Image - An image defined by rows and
columns of pixels. Scanners capture images as raster images,
although some can convert them to vector images.
Raster to Vector Conversion - The process
of examining a raster image for lines and strokes, and creating
a new image that looks the same but is made up of lines rather
than pixels. When a person draws, they are creating a vector
image. Vector images can be enlarged much more accurately and
often have a smaller file size.
Resolution - The number of pixels or dots per inch in an image.
Also the capability of a scanner to resolve detail, which requires
quality optics as well as high ppi or spi.
S
Sample Rate or Samples Per Inch - The number
of pixels per inch captured by a scanner.
Scanner- A device that captures images or
text and converts it to a bitmapped image.
Selection Area- The part of a HP Deskscan
preview scan that you select to be saved to a file or sent directly
to a printer.
Sharpening - Increasing the apparent sharpness
of an image by increasing the contrast between the adjacent
tones or colors.
Smoothing - To blur the boundaries between tones of an image,
usually to reduce a rough or jagged appearance.
T
Threshold - A predefined level used by scanners
to determine whether a pixel will be represented as black or
white.
Thumbnail - A miniature copy of a page or
image, which gives you an idea of what the original looks like
without having to open the original file or view the full size
image.
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) - A graphic
file format originally developed specifically for scanners.
It can be used to store grayscale and color images and now is
graphic standard image file format supported by most applications,
printers, and scanners.
Transparency Adapter - An add-on device used
with a scanner to scan slides and other see-through media.
TWAIN - A software driver interface between
a scanner and other image capturing devices that lets you scan
images from a scanning application directly into an application
like Adobe Photoshop.
V
Vector Image - An image defined by the beginning
and ending points of each line.
Z
Zoom - To enlarge a portion of an image.
Document scanning and imaging can be a confusing topic when implementing document management software. FileHold are experts in these processes and can help you meet your objectives of the “paperless office”.
For more information or help contact sales@filehold.com .
