MetaTool > Help > Edit > Image Editor

040-060 MetaTool Edit – Image Editor

Kofax VRS already solves a lot of image quality problems during scanning. Yet, there are still some image clean-up and editing functions that cannot be automated. For manual cleanup, MetaTool’s Image Editor is the fastest and most efficient way to produce perfect images.

In our example, we have 4 different types of documents that need to be cleaned, cropped or redacted / anonymized. For this, we will make use of the CB MetaTool Image Editor job. This job is automatically installed when you install CaptureBites MetaTool.

Example of a medical certificate that needs to be redacted / anonymized
Example of a scanned newspaper that needs outside erasing
Example of a scanned invoice that needs inside erasing and cropping
Example of a scanned plan that needs inside erasing

01 Image Editor – Add Rule

The image editor is defined in the MetaTool Edit tab. Press the Add button and select Image Editor.

The Image Editor setup window opens.

02 Image Editor – Setup

01 – Default sticky selection mode: here you can change the default sticky selection mode to make your last selection appear on every page automatically. Press the drop-down arrow to enable or disable this option.
02 – Default action: here you can select the default action that will always be active on the first page when the image editor opens. Press the drop-down arrow to choose between the Crop, Erase inside or Erase outside action.
03 – Default eraser color: here you can select the color of your eraser. Press the drop-down arrow to choose between Automatic or Selected color.
1) Automatic: this option will automatically select the eraser color based on where you start drawing the selection.
2) Selected color: this option allows you to manually select the Default eraser color. You can choose between white or black in the Default color drop-down list.
Note: The black eraser color is often selected for redacting / anonymizing documents.
04 – Default selection: when enabling this option, you can enter the pixel-precise dimensions and position of your default selection for more accurate work. This is especially helpful for setting perfectly square selections or pre-defined sizes. For example, 640 x 480 images to feed an entry-pass system.
Example of a 256 x 256 default selection
You can also draw a default selection with the draw zone tool. Make sure it is selected and draw a rectangle with the selection tool to set the default selection. You can then further tweak it using the pixel settings.

05 – Preview next page: this option will show a preview window with the following page on the right side of the active page. This can be helpful for quickly checking each page without accidentally skipping images requiring editing. The animation below speaks for itself.

If you need to check every page, you get into a repetitive browsing mode and when you see a page requiring editing your browse reflex results in one click too many. This actually skips the page that requires editing so you have to page back to do the editing.

The preview viewer takes advantage of this otherwise annoying reflex. You actually look for problem images in the preview viewer on the right side. When you see a problem image, your repetitive browse reflex will by accident skip it. But this accidental skip actually places it in the left side viewer, ready for editing and no paging back is required.

Without the Preview next page during export, you often skip pages that need correcting by accident, wasting time going back to the previous page.
Example with the Preview next page option enabled during export.
You can also specify the size of the preview window by changing the Panel width value. Press the drop-down button to select your preferred size.
06 – Allow export of partially validated batches: when you enable this option, you can export the batch even if you don’t validate each page in the image editor. When disabled, the user will be forced to look at every page before he can export the batch.

03 Image Editor during Export

During export, the Image Editor window opens.

01 – The Toolbar
Tip: You can always hover over each button to see a tooltip explaining the hotkeys and shortcuts.

02 – Make the last selection sticky: Enable this option to make your last selection appear on every page automatically. It will also remember your zoomed-in position (see next item).

    Hotkey:

    

03 – Zoom on Rectangle: Select the zoom tool to zoom in on a part of the image.

     Hotkey:

        OR  

04 – Pan:  Select the pan tool to grab the page and move it around. This tool only functions when the page is not completely visible.

     Hotkey:

        OR  

05 – Select: Select the Select tool to draw a selection rectangle and apply the current action

     Hotkey:

        OR  

06 – Eraser Color Picker:  Select the color picker to pick the eraser color from the image. The square next to the color picker, shows the color you are currently hovering over.

     Hotkey:

     

07 – Manual Erase Mode: shows the current color used by the erase inside or outside selection tools. Change the color with the color picker or press the drop-down arrow to select black or white. The A-key toggles between Manual and Automatic erase mode.

     Hotkey:

     

08 – Automatic Erase Mode: with this tool, the color used by the erase inside or outside selection tools will be automatically detected based on where you start drawing the selection. The A-key toggles between Manual and Automatic erase mode.

     Hotkey:

     

09 – Crop: with this tool, you can crop to your current selection.

     Hotkey:

     

10 – Erase Inside: with this tool, you can erase inside your current selection using the selected eraser color.

     Hotkey:

     

11 – Erase Outside: with this tool, you can erase outside your current selection using the selected eraser color.

     Hotkey:

     

04 Image Editor – Shortcuts

The MetaTool Image Editor features many shortcuts to help increase productivity.

The animations below show a short overview of all shortcuts and some tips & tricks to make best use of the MetaTool Image Editor.

01 – Temporarily switching between modes while the selection tool is selected:
02 – Switching tools while drawing a selection:
03 – Cancelling your selection while drawing a selection:
04 – Fit to page while in zoom mode:
05 – Toggle between Black or White Eraser Color:
06 – Switching the way the page fits to the viewer:
07 – Rotating the page:

08 – Triple Undo

  1. The first undo, undos the last action but leaves the selection. In that way you can change to another action using the same selection
  2. The second undo, removes the selection
  3. the third undo, restores the original image and undos all actions

05 Czech Republic – Anonymization

According to the newly approved Act No. 340/2015 Coll. (Law on the Register of Contracts), all published contracts need to be in a machine-readable format and must contain metadata (the descriptive details of the document) in the Czech Republic. All contracts need to have the sensitive personal data anonymized (redacted) before sending them to “The Central Register of Contracts” (“Centrálny Register Zmlúv”).

Czech Translation
Dle nově schváleného zákona č. 340/2015 Sb. (tzv. zákon o registru smluv) musí od 1. 7. 2016 všechny zákonem stanovené instituce zveřejňovat uzavřené smlouvy na veřejném portále ve strojově čitelném formátu a s metadaty (popisné údaje k dokumentu). Tyto smlouvy musí mít před zasláním do Registru smluv znečitelněné (tzv. anonymizované) citlivé – osobní údaje.

Our Czech partner, Infomatic, offers a solution based on Kofax Express in combination with CaptureBites’ MetaTool. The solution makes use of the eraser tools of MetaTool’s Image Editor to anonymize the contracts.

The eraser tools permanently alter the image on pixel level and it is impossible to unhide the sensitive information.

For more information, please visit Infomatic’s Document Anonymization Solution page.

06 Image Editor – Results

The final results after export using MetaTool Image:

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After
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