Recognition methods

Font

Print&Share is able to recognize words on the basis of their font type, size or colour with a function called Font Recognition.
If you select the font colour recognition method, Print&Share can also change the colour after the detection of the respective colour.

Experience has taught us that, when a document that is laid out in Microsoft Word and contains words with a specific font size (e.g. 16 points), the printer driver displays these words with a larger font size (e.g. 16.5 points). This is why you can also set a specific font size range.

  • Text start : The position of the first character for making a selection of the recognized result.
  • Length : The length of the number of characters for the selected result. The value -1 represents all the characters that are found.

Draw

With this recognition method, you only have to draw a frame around the data to select it. This will result in four coordinates, in which the specified data must be located in order for the program to recognize it.

  • Labels : You can also determine the coordinates by selecting a word from the print job. Select [Obtain coordinates by selecting labels] and specify the respective words (‘coordinates’). If you would like to detect information from forms, it is wise to first print the document with a rather broad condition.

Windows works with proportional font types, i.e. the letter "i" is less wide than the letter "w". You should therefore choose a word that has enough width to determine the coordinates when you use this recog-nition method.

  • Selection : The result you obtained after recognition can be made subject to an extra type of control. In this way, Print&Share can judge whether the conditions match the typical conditions or patterns. A selection of certain characters from the result is also possible.
  • Value type : This is a typical pattern for the condition check (letters, numbers, EAN-13 barcode, date, etc.)
  • Text start : This is the position of the first character for making a selection of the recognized result.
  • Length : Specify the length of the number of characters for the selected result. The value -1 represents all the characters that are found.

Position

This type of recognition is especially useful when the position of the word that needs to be recognized is fixed in the layout of the print job. For example: when you are printing a document of which the chapters have the same recurring setup.

  • Search condition : In the Search condition field, you can enter a recognized word. Print&Share will display the different matching conditions in the drop down menu under Possible matches.
  • Info : By selecting the appropriate result from the drop down menu, you will obtain the position of the result. The obtained result after recognition can still be limited with a selection of a number of characters from the result. A selection of a specific page is also possible by clicking on the [Page range] button.
  • Text start : This indicates the position of the first character in order to make a selection of the recognized result.
  • Length : This indicates the length of the number of characters of the selected result. The value -1 represents all the characters that are found.
  • Repeating? : Distance (pixels) : When the object you are searching for occurs more than once under the first object to detect and the distance is the same every time, you can check the check box [Repeating?]. You can specify the distance between the repeating conditions in pixels or pitch.

Label

If the information that needs to be recognized is continuously preceded by a title or description (label), you can use Label Recognition.

If your document contains the following example email address: info@ricoh.com, then you should set the label to “email address:”.

  • Label : You can determine the word you want to search for as the label for recognition purposes. The label can be regarded as reference position.
  • Search for whole words? : The search condition for the label can be a complete word or a part of the search condition.
  • Position : You can determine the position of the condition with respect to the label. This can be in front, after or below the label.
  • Index of Value : If the result shows multiple words, you can determine the ranking.
  • Boundaries : You can limit the area where the label may occur.
  • Value type : A typical pattern for the condition check (letters, numbers, EAN-13 barcodes, date, etc.).
  • Text start : The position of the first character to make a selection of the recognised result.
  • Length : This is the number of characters of the selected result. The value -1 represents all the characters that are found.
  • Page range : You can select a specific page on which you want to search for the label.

Specific

The Specific Recognition function searches for specific conditions in the text.

  • Specific values : This method searches for specific conditions in the text like date, time, URL, etc.
  • Regular expression : You can determine a regular expression to find the desired result. You can select and edit certain pre-defined conditions.
  • Fixed value : You can search for a condition that has been set by a user. You can determine a regular expression to find the desired result.
  • Boundaries : You can limit the area where the label may occur here.
  • Page range : Select a specific page on which you want to search for the label.

Barcode

In case the print of a document does not contain usable text for recognition in Print&Share (e.g. for OCR scanned documents), you can use this feature.
For example, in case the print does not create text records of a PDF file in the internal EMF file of Print&Share, you can still apply an alternative kind of recognition. This method searches for barcodes within the document and changes the contents of it into usable text. In this way, you can still recognize metadata and other useful information of a print.

  • Barcodes
    The supported barcodes for this function are EAN8, AN13, UPCE, UPCA, Interleaved 2 of 5, Code39, Code128, EAN2, EAN5, GS1, Codabar, PDF417, DataMatrix, QRCode, Aztec, TriopticCode39, PatchCode, GS1DataBarOmnidirectional, GS1DataBarExpanded, GS1DataBarLimited, GS1DataBarStacked, GS1DataBarExpandedStacked, GS1DataBar, All1D, MaxiCode, MICR, All2D.
  • Regular expression You can determine a regular expression for your result. You can only select predefined values and change these if desired.
  • Boundaries
    1.Boundaries : Limit the place where the label may occur. By setting boun-da¬ries, you can use a smaller barcode. 1.Page range : Specify a certain page range for the label search. The field [Custom:] can contain the function FromHere which starts the recognition from that position.

Tip : The function FromHere can also be used in the page range property of an object in the Get More Editor.

Default

If recognition has not delivered the result you desired, a default condition can also be set by the user.

  • Text value : Determine a default text condition as result.
  • Specific value : The name of the print job or the current date can also be obtained if you select [Specific value].

Edit result

With the recognition method Edit result, you can re-edit an acquired result via detection.

  • Retrieve VBScript to edit the result : This function recalls a VBScript with which you can edit the result. The VBScript can either be saved on a local hard disk or in the profile.
  • VBScript file : The VBScript will be recalled from the hard disk after each result that is found.
  • VBScript in memory : The VBScript will be recalled only once from the location of the hard disk.
  • Select other result from the document : This option will select different information then what was found at first. Indirect addressing and orientation will be determined by additional horizontal and/or vertical values. The combination of these two values will influence the location of the result in the end.
  • Horizontal : This value will cause relative positioning, either to the beginning of a line or to the end.
  • Vertical : According to the selection made in the horizontal value, a specific row on the page will be selected. This is by default either the first or last row of the page. As a third possibility, the position can also be set depending on the location of where the value is found by setting a couple of adjustable rows higher or lower.

Data source : This option allows you to use a recognized condition to search for a new condition in a database.

  • Data source : By clicking on the […] button, a dialog window will appear where you can select the data source type. This can be an Excel, Access, FoxPro or SQL database.
  • Lookup column : You can determine the column in the data source to search for a record in the database. The search condition is the recognition condition.
  • Return column : This is the column from the data source that will deliver the result of the search.
  • Exact match : Print&Share expects to find an exact match between the search and database condition.
  • Discard the results that were not found : If no result is found in the database, it will not create a condition.
  • Cache Data : You can enable/disable the cache system of the database or operating system. If the database in which the search takes place is continually being updated/changed, it is wise to disable (uncheck) Cache data.

Combine result

The main aim of this option is to insert a text paragraph via the recognition method.

  • Horizontal : This setting will group all the words together from the same line in the result.
  • Vertical : This setting will group all the words together of which the letters appear exactly below each other in the result.
  • All : This setting groups all the words together as result of the recognition.

You can specify a limit concerning the search area via the preceding recognition method. A limitation of the search > area can be set by means of boundaries and/or page range.

  • Other actions : The number of found results will be displayed as a number.
  • Match keywords : Filter and/or replace found recognition results by using keywords as search values. These keywords can be regular expressions. The result value can be the search value or a specific value.

Other

The final result of all recognitions or operations can be adjusted in the last phase of Print&Share. For example: you need to change the format of a number (e.g. 12345 needs to be € 12.345,-).

  • Only search through Print job name : The option [Only search through Print job name:] allows you to limit the search of the recognition to only the print job name.
  • Max. no. of results : This option limits the maximum number of results found by the recognition method. The default value is -1, which returns all results.
  • Repeat until different recognition value is found : The option [Repeat until different recognition value is found] will add dummy results until the recognition finds a different value. e.g.: A document with 10 pages with on page 5 a word ‘WINKING’ after the label ‘company:’ and on page 8 the word ‘RICOH’ after the label ‘company:’ will provide the results ‘WINKING’ (page 5) and ‘RICOH’ (page 8) with the standard label recognition. If you enable the [Repeat until other recognition value is found] you will get the results: ‘WINKING’ (page 5), ‘WINKING’ (page 6), ‘WINKING’ (page 7), ‘RICOH’ (page 8), ‘RICOH’ (page 9), ‘RICOH’ (page 10). Dummy results have been added to fill in the gap between both recognitions, allowing you to do a more complex page selection.
  • Only use result if conditions are valid : With this option you can define additional conditions by using recognition so that only your recognition result returns a value if the additional conditions are matched. This allows you to return a recognition value, but only when one or more recognitions are matched.