Pixel!ENGINE & Pixel!ENGINE OCR
If you need batch scanning, editing or OCR capabilities,
Mentalix's Pixel!ENGINE and Pixel!ENGINE
OCR are the products for you. Pixel!ENGINE
enables batch or command-line interactive scanning
and processing functionality. The Pixel!ENGINE
OCR product includes the same functions, plus
Optical Character Recognition capabilities. Both of
these TCL-based scripting interfaces are available
as stand-alone products, and Pixel!ENGINE is
also included in the Pixel!FX
Deluxe and Pixel!FX
software suites. For batch PDF capabilities, the PDF
Add-On product is now available.
These developer tools provide more power than a command-line
interface, yet do not require the degree of programming
expertise necessary to use an Application Programming
Interface (API). Pixel!ENGINE and Pixel!ENGINE
OCR are designed to accommodate a variety of potential
uses for programmers and developers. Both products
make it easy to build custom utility and batch scripts.
You can script repetitive tasks; create user-specific
applications; or add scanning, file conversion or
OCR (requires Pixel!ENGINE OCR) capabilities
to a new product.
See Pixel!ENGINE and Pixel!ENGINE OCR
product brochure
in PDF format.
Check the TCL information in the Online
Resources section for tips and sample scripts.
Feature Summary
- TCL-based scripting interface
- Enables batch or command-line interactive:
- file conversion
- scanning
- convolution filters
- image rotation
- image scaling
- image type conversions
- fax
- e-mail command integration
- OCR (only in Pixel!ENGINE OCR)
- creation of searchable text in PDF files
(with PDF Add-On)
- Can be used as an Application Programming Interface
(API)
Scanner Functions
- info - Returns information about scanner parameters
and settings.
- open - Initiates access to the scanner.
- close - Releases the scanner.
- lock - Changes scanner state to disallow changes
to parameters.
- unlock - Changes scanner state to allow parameter
modification.
- reset - Resets parameters to default settings.
- pageReady - Used to determine if there is an automatic
document feeder attached to the scanner with a
page ready to scan.
- scan - Performs single or multi-page scan. Additional
parameters determine where the image data should
go:
- stream - image data is written to stdout
for processing;
- Ximage - creates an image object for applying
image functions;
- tiff - creates a TIFF file from the scanned
image.
- scanPage - Performs a single page scan.
- setdpi - Sets the scanner's x and y resolution
parameters.
- setmode - Sets the scanner's depth color parameters.
- setlimits - Specifies a scanbed area that is to
be scanned.
- setcontrast - Sets contrast of scanned image.
- setintensity - Sets intensity of scanned image.
- setgamma - Sets gamma value of scanned image.
- setmedia - Enables or disables transparency scanning.
- setblackpoint - Sets black point of scanned image.
- setwhitepoint - Sets white point of scanned image.
- setthreshold - Sets image threshold. Values range
from 0 to 255.
- filter - Applies a specified convolution filter
during scan process.
- setfocusPosition - Sets the focus position of
the transparency holder for the Agfa Horizon/Horizon
Plus scanners.
- setdensity - Sets density for Agfa Horizon/Horizon
Plus scanners.
- usecalibrate - Enables use of Pixel!SCAN
interface calibration files.
- settimeout - Sets the manual feeder and automatic
document feeder timeout values for Bell+Howell
scanners.
- setduplex - Turns on/off duplex scanning on scanners
that support duplex operations.
- setadfbatch - Turns on/off batch scanning for
Bell+Howell scanners.
- fjbrightness - Sets brightness parameter for Fujitsu
scanners.
- fjhalftone - Sets halftone parameter for Fujitsu
scanners.
Image Functions
- info - Prints information about the image object
to the transcript.
- getwidth - Returns the width of the image object.
- getheight - Returns the height of the image object.
- getxres - Returns the horizontal resolution of
the image object.
- getyres - Returns the vertical resolution of the
image object.
- getdepth - Returns the depth of the image object.
- destroy - Frees the memory associated with an
image.
- load - Loads an image object with the image data
from a specified file. Type parameters specify
file format:
- tiff - Tagged Image File Format, Version
5.0+
- xwd - X Window dump
- gif - Graphics Interchange Format version
87a
- png - Portable Network Graphics Format
- tga - Targa Image File
- xbm - X bitmap
- sun - Sun Raster
- jpeg - Joint Photographic Experts Group
File Interchange Format
- ppm - Portable Pixmap
- bmp - Bitmap
- wpg - Word Perfect Graphics format
- mtx - Mentalix
- xpm - X Pixmap
- iimg - Interleaf Image Format
- frame - FrameMaker Image Format
- save - Saves the image to a specified format.
Supports same formats as the load command, plus
PostScript, PCL and PDF formats.
- isBlack - Determines whether image is a certain
percentage black.
- isAreaBlack - Determines whether an image area
is a certain percentage black.
- setgamma - Sets the image gamma value.
- setdpi - Changes resolution based on xres and
yres parameters.
- setResample - Sets the interpolation method. Parameters
include NearestNeighbor, BiLinear and Bicubic.
- invert - Inverts the image data.
- rotate - Rotates the image, based on an angle
parameter.
- scale - Scales the image based on x and y parameters.
- togray - Converts image to grayscale, based on
depth parameter. Choices include line art, 16-level
gray, 256-level gray, and 16-bit gray.
- torgb - Converts image to RGB color, based on
red depth, green depth and blue depth parameters.
- tocmyk - Converts image to CMYK color, based on
cyan depth, magenta depth, yellow depth, and black
depth parameters.
- topseudo - Converts image to 256 color.
- autothresh - Converts image to line art, at computed
optimum threshold.
- crop - Crops the image.
- autocrop - Automatically crops to image boundaries.
- filter - Applies a convolution filter to the image.
Various types for smoothing, sharpening, unsharp
masking, descreening, ringing, and translating
are included. Custom filters are also supported.
- despeckle - Applies the despeckle filter to image.
- fax - Faxes the image using third-party integrated
fax product.
- ocr - Performs Optical Character Recognition (requires
Pixel!ENGINE OCR)
- numpages - Returns the number of pages when a
multi-page image is scanned (as a result of using
an automatic document feeder).
- curpage - Returns the number of the page being
accessed.
- firstpage - Sets the current page to be the first
page in the image.
- nextpage - Sets the current page to be the next
page in the image.
- jumpPage - Jumps to a new page based on a count
parameter.
- copypages - Specifies the number of pages to be
counted. Creates a new image object that contains
the specified number of pages.
- removepages - Specifies the number of pages to
be removed.
- insert - Inserts another image object following
the current page.
OCR Functions in Pixel!ENGINE OCR
- active - Sets the function (ocrcontext) used for
OCR operations.
- destroy - Frees up resources associated with an
ocrcontext object.
- numzones - Returns the number of zones that are
defined.
- justzones - Restricts subsequent OCR operations
to be performed on only the zones specified in
the zone-number-list.
- readnextline - Determines the length of the current
text line and obtains character data for the next
line of text.
- metric - Selects the metric for describing and
receiving results on dimensional information (default
unit is pixels).
- savesettings - Saves current ocrcontext settings
to a specified file.
- loadsettings - Loads ocrcontext settings from
a specified file.
- addzone - Adds zones to the image.
- insertzone - Inserts zones at specified positions
in the image.
- deletezone - Deletes a specified zone.
- deleteallzones - Restores the original state of
having no zones.
- movezone - Allows you to reposition a specified
zone.
- spellcheck - Turns dictionary on/off.
- settextoutputlayout - Defines the layout format
of the recognized text. Options include WYSIWYG
and left-justified.
- settextoutputformat - Defines the file format
for recognized text output. Supported formats
include ANSI, RTF and spreadsheet.
- setlanguage - Specifies the language to be used
for recognition.
- setcharactercolor - Specifies character color
as black or white.
- setunrecognizedchar - Designates the character
to be inserted when Pixel!ENGINE OCR is
unable to recognize a character.
- setdotmatrix - Defines whether the image was generated
by a dot matrix printer to improve recognition.
- getstatistics - Returns a list of total characters,
total unrecognized characters and recognition
time in seconds following conversion.
- autozone - Generates a zone list for a specified
image and stores it. Can be used to set up zone
templates for use on different images.
- setzonemode - Defines the zone mode for a specified
zone. Modes include:
- ANSI
- Lowercase
- Uppercase
- Alpha
- Digit
- Alphadigit
- Numeric
- Fixed Length Expression
- Word List
- Barcode
- Image
- autobarzone - Automatically detects zones for
barcodes.
- setreadmode - Sets the type of recognition you
want performed on the specified zone(s). Options
include:
- OmniFont
- OmniLearned
- Learning
- Learned
- Multi-Engine
- Hand Print
- setfontfilename - Sets the personal font file
name to be used when recognizing specified zones.
- setcolumndecomposition - Indicates whether image
will be treated as single or multiple column(s)
when performing autozoning.
- retainattributes - Enables text attribute processing.
- getattributes - Gets the recognition attribute
object.
- Text attribute functions include:
- getnumlines - Returns the number of lines.
- getlinechars - Returns the number of characters
on a line.
- getlinewords - Returns the number of words
on a line.
- getlinesuspicious - Returns the number
of suspicious characters on a line.
- getlinepos - Returns boundary coordinates
of a specified line.
- getcharpos - Returns boundaries of a specified
character.
- getwordpos - Returns boundaries of a specified
word.
- getsusppos - Returns boundaries for a
suspicious character.
- getsuspindex - Returns position of a suspicious
character.
- getwordindex - Accesses character information
for a word.
- getwordchars - Returns the number of characters
in a word.
- getchar - Returns character at specified
position.
- isunderline - Returns underline attribute
for character.
- isbold - Returns bold attribute for character.
- isitalic - Returns italic attribute for
character.
Utility Functions
- mailconfig - Configures e-mail parameters.
- mailto - E-mails a file.
PDF Add-On Product
The PDF Add-On product enables unattended, high-volume
batch TIFF to PDF conversions in a command-line interactive
environment. The PDF Add-On product includes these
features:
- Converts one or more single- or multi-page TIFF
files to a single PDF output file.
- Converts TIFF files of up to thousands of pages
to PDF files.
- Efficiently assembles very large PDF documents,
limited only by machine resources and PDF page,
object and data size limits.
- Line art TIFF images can be converted to text,
which is stored in the PDF file along with an
overlaid reproduction of the original image data.
- Compresses PDF text data with PDF 1.3 Flate compression.
- Compresses line art image data using CCITT Fax
compression.
- Supports line art (1-bit), grayscale (8-bit) and
color (24-bit) image types.
- When saving TIFF images to an existing PDF file,
the PDF Add-On utility gives you the option to
append the new images rather than overwriting
the PDF file.
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