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10 Feb '92 DOCUMENTATION FOR MERGING HAND SCANNER IMAGES WRITTEN TO PCX FILES Hand image scanners have become inexpensive and popular in the last few years for capturing printed images to computer graphic files. Typically the scanners can capture an image 3"-4" wide. MergeIt (TM) is designed to align and merge adjacent images captured with a hand scanner into PCX format files when the original printed image is greater than 3"-4". Images larger than a legal sized sheet (8.5"x14") may be captured into a single file with MergeIt. By making a simple frame + edge guide to scan images with, you can most easily automatically merge scanned sections of a document which are in the "PCX" image file format. Manual merging of hand scanner images is also possible. A number of user tools are available to effect a satisfactory alignment and merge. The program MergeIt (TM) can merge scanned images together which are horizontally adjacent image sections. The actual merging, however, may be done horizontally or vertically-resulting in a composite image with a landscape or portrait orientation respectively. The composite image is displayed as it is built, enabling progressive user trimming in the critical merged regions. With both automatic or manual merging, automatic trimming is available to correct small registration errors inherent in the hand image scanning process. This appears as a drift in alignment across merged image regions. Whole letter or legal sized page images can be built from hand scanned sections that are very nearly indistinguishable from the whole page flat-bed scanners. MergeIt will display the merged image regions on Hercules, EGA, and VGA video systems. The automatic merge process will be most successful if a mechanical straight edge is used on the left side to guide the hand scanner. In particular, any twisting of the scanner will distort the image in ways that no software can correct. With a modest amount of preparation, MergeIt will make full page documents that are readily faxable or importable into painting and drawing programs that use the PCX format. The shareware version of MergeIt is limited to merging 2 image sections and the merged output image file is named "ImageOut.PCX". The registered version of MergeIt will merge up to 5 image sections and does not restrict the output file name. See "Register.Txt". Scanning SetUp-Physical Orientation *** See "Frame.Doc" for more information on building a scanning frame. *** In this documentation, scanned image sections will be described as being generated by moving your hand scanner from the top to the bottom of a frame which holds the image being scanned. Adjacent image sections are left and right of each other (NOT above and below). Merging occurs along the vertical edges of adjacent sections. Image section #1 is on the right. Original Image To Scan _________________________________ Scan in vertical | ......... . .. . | columns, from | . . . . . | top to | . . . | | | . . . . | \|/ | ......... . . . | bottom --------------------------------- ____________ ___________ ___________ | ......... | M | . . | M | . . | | . | E | . . | E | . . | | . | -> R <- | . | -> R <- | . | | . | G | . | G | . . | | ......... | E | . | E | . . | -------------- ------------- ------------- Image 3 Image 2 Image 1 The image may be in a portrait or landscape orientation. Reference blocks (see next section) are at the top edge of the image, the regions to be cut and merged are at the left and right sides of the scanned image. The top and bottom image edges just need to be cut. The image is scanned right to left, with the scanned image file numbering starting on the right. (If the image scanned is an ordinary sheet of text laid on its side in landscape orientation, the top of the text should be on the right). MergeIt works with B&W PCX files-if your hand scanner can make gray scale PCX files, then make sure to set it to the B&W mode (sometimes called the line art or high contrast setting). Automatic merging of scanned image sections is dependent on the detection and measurement of black reference blocks on the top edge of the scanned image sections, just above the printed image to be merged, and within 1.5" of the left and right edges. These black blocks must exist on a white background to enable clean detection. "Frame.Doc" gives more information on how to set this up. Using MergeIt becomes more natural with a little practice. Since it is an unusual mixture of mechanical setup and software, give yourself some time to become fluent in adjusting and using it. The reward of having full sized, merged images from almost any printed source for the modest cost of a hand scanner (and MergeIt!) will make it worthwhile. Enjoy! Image Analysis for Locating Reference Blocks-Automatic Merging The top 1.0" of the scanned image is analyzed for left and right reference blocks within 1.5" of the left and right edges. The detected reference blocks must have a minimum height of 0.1" to be valid. (See "Frame.Doc" for hints on how to assure this). If a reference block height is insufficient, the resultant merge will be unsatisfactory. This can be verified by running MergeIt with the reference block analysis display feature on. (See Msec-Dbug variable in the Initial Values File.) During calculations, the bottom 0.01" of each block is ignored and the above 0.08" of the blocks are used to calculate critical left and right block edges and block widths. The bottom 0.01" is skipped to avoid averaging spurious partial block image lines. Methods of Cutting and Merging the Vertical Left and Right Edges of Images Each scanned image section has one line of parameters in the Initial Values File which defines how to cut and merge it. (Initial Values File described below). The left edge of a scanned image is always processed the same way. The left edge of the left top reference block acts as a vertical cutting line; the image is cut with respect to this. The user may specify an offset from this line. Even if no offset is desired, an entry in the Initial Values File must be made (of "0.0"). The right vertical edge may be cut in one of three ways, specified in the initial values file. The 1st non-zero entry (after the offset) determines which method to use, starting with "a" below. If all 3 entries are "0.0" then the third method will be used. a) The simplest is a simple cut determined by a user-specified width with respect to the left cut line. This cut is usually done for the right-most scanned image since its right edge is also the edge of the document. In this case, the width is specified as the 2nd entry on line 6 in the initial values file. b) The most commonly used automatic merge method is probably by reference block merge. The method takes the width of the left reference index block located in the image to the right and then utilizes the width of the right block in the current image to calculate how to cut the right edge so that the width of the merged block across the seam is equal to the original block width (which is user specified). For each image section you wish to merge this way, the reference block width is the 3rd entry on the corresponding line in the initial values file. c) The 3rd method is a mirror image of the way the left edge is cut. The right edge of the right reference block determines a vertical cutting line. The user may specify an offset from this. This method might be useful if you have a page of text in narrow columns (such as a magazine). Using a right white edge while scanning will cause a clean cut and merge of the adjacent text columns. For each image section you wish to merge this way, the offset is the 4th entry on the corresponding line in the initial values file. Top and Bottom Cutting of Images The top cutting line of an image is determined from the bottom edge of the reference blocks. If one block is lower than the other, it determines the edge. The height of the cut image is user specified and is calculated in one of two ways: a) Ordinarily it calculated downwards from this top cutting line. b) If the height is specified as a non-positive number, then the height is interpreted as the dimension (in inches) to cut up from the bottom of the rightmost scanned image section. The composite image height is then the distance from the top cutting line to this shifted bottom line. The additional scanned image sections to the left are cut to match this height. Command line switches (optional) 1) File name (with path if necessary) of initial values file. Ex:/image3.ini 2) Merged image filename to override the name specified in the initial values file. Ex: MergeIt /d:\paint\eschrB.ini /printA.pcx Use the initial values file "eschrB.ini" in the directory "d:\paint" and call the merged image file "printA.pcx". Initial Values File MergeIt requires an initial values file, written as a simple ascii text file, to run. Since there are a number of sample initial values files included to use with MergeIt, you need not understand all these parameters before running MergeIt. *** Before trying to understand these entries and their meaning, I *** suggest you look at "Frame.Doc" (if you haven't already) for a physical orientation on automatic merging. In addition, you might want to see the line by line image analysis described in the latter part of "Tutor.Txt". You also might want to look at enclosed sample initial values files: a) To automatically merge: EschrB.Ini b) To manually merge: Manl50.Ini, Manl80.Ini, Manl-01.Ini, Eschr-01.Ini Line by line description: (line indices are for description only, do NOT include in actual file) {Starting on line 5, all floating point numbers are inches, + is in the left direction when specifying left/right offsets, in the down direction when specifying down/up offsets } {spacing between numbers is not important-I space them in logical groupings} 1)Scan#.PCX {Scanned Image Filename, "#" denotes increment position in name, scanned images move from right=>left} 2)1 3 {Index to start input files at, number of images to merge i.e. scan1.pcx, scan2.pcx, scan3.pcx } 3)PageOut.PCX {Merged Image Filename to use} 4)25 12 0 1 3 {First 3 parameters affect automatic merging: a) Dark Threshold (maximum % of dots that can be white in the averaging of dot segments, in this case up to 3 out of 12 dots could be white), b) Number of Dots to use in averaged dot segments, a number <2.0 is interpreted as a dimension in inches to average (and the appropriate number of dots are calculated). If an odd number of dots is specified, it is incremented to an even number. Enter 0 to defeat automatic merging. c) millisecs to view each line of analysis, called Msec-Debug, see below} {Next 2 parameters affect automatic trimming: a) Alignment improvement threshold. Within each group of 16-20 image lines being shifted along a merge boundary, this threshold is the improvement (in number of lines aligned) that must occur for a shift to be implemented (instead of doing no shifting). Typically set to 1. Setting to a negative number will cause MergeIt to initialize auto trimming but turn it OFF (which may be later turned on by the user). In this case the threshold value is the magnitude of the negative number (i.e. without the negative sign). Setting the threshold to 0 will prevent any auto trimming. b) Maximum rotated image alignment shift: This value only affects auto trimming when the user chooses to rotate the image as it is merged. It defines the maximum shift along a merge boundary that a group of 16 images lines will make in an effort to improve alignment. Acceptable values are 1 to 9. (Typically set to 3.) Note that this value must be included even when unrotated merging is to be performed. 5)0.0 8.4 4.0 3.5 General image cutting values: {a) Top edge offset to trim down from for all image sections, b) height of outputted merged image, (if < 0.0 then becomes the amount to cut up from the bottom of the rightmost image section) c) scanned image width, d) spacing between reference blocks} 6)0.0 3.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 Values for cutting and merging the first scanned image (the rightmost image): {a) Inches to trim left image edge, with respect to straight edge white/black boundary of left reference block b) Width to cut image at right edge. (If <0.0 then this value becomes the amount to cut in from the right edge of this image section.) If this value is 0.0 then the program will cut the right edge by the next method and value ("c") c) Set right edge to merge with adjacent image on the basis of total width of black index block which is read here. The width is determined by the frame setup you use. If this value is 0.0 then the program will cut the right edge by the next method and value ("d") d) Cut right edge on the basis of the black/white boundary. Use this number of inches to shift left/ right from boundary. This value may be 0.0 e) Top Line Offset for this image only. To be added to global offset above.} 7)0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 Values for cutting and merging the next scanned image (to the left of the above image): {a) Inches to trim left image edge, with respect to straight edge white/black boundary b) Width to cut image at right edge.(If <0.0 then this value becomes the amount to cut in from the right edge of this image section.) If 0.0 then program will cut the right edge by the next method and value ("c").. c) Set right edge to merge with adjacent image on the basis of total width of black index block which is read. The total width is determined by the frame setup you use. If 0.0 then program will read next value.. d) Cut right edge on the basis of the black/white boundary. Use this number of inches to shift left/ right from boundary. This value may be 0.0 e) Top Line Offset for this image only. To be added to global offset on line 5.} 8)0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 Values for cutting and merging the next scanned image (to the left of the above image): {a) Inches to trim left image edge, with respect to straight edge white/black boundary b) Width to cut image at right edge. (If <0.0 then this value becomes the amount to cut in from the right edge of this image section.) If 0.0 then move on to (c).. c) Set right edge to merge with adjacent image on the basis of total width of black index block which is read. Set value from frame setup. If 0.0 then move on to.. d) Cut right edge on the basis of the black/white boundary. Use this number of inches to shift left/ right from boundary. e) Top Line Offset for this image only. To be added to global offset on line 5.} Display of image line analysis (Msec-Debug): The value of Msec-Debug determines how much reference block analysis is displayed. If Msec value=1, then a summary of each image's analysis is displayed after all lines in an image section are analyzed. If Msec value is >1, then the individual line analysis is shown for the # of Millisec specified in addition to the previous information. If Msec value=0, then only the actual image sections will be displayed for user trimming. If Msec value is < 0, then image viewing and user trimming will be bypassed. The image will be simply automatically merged on the basis of the reference block analysis. Error Messages When Running MergeIt Errors may be divided into 3 groups: system, input and analysis, and cutting. System: the program will halt If there isn't enough memory to run the program (the program grows somewhat in size as more images must be merged). If an initial values file or image file is not found. If there is no more disk space to store a combined image file. Input and Analysis: the program will halt If the initial values file has invalid numerical entries. If the image files do not appear to be PCX files. If the image files do not appear to be PCX hand scanner files, you will be able to correct this. The most common scanner image file error is to not have proper dot per inch (dpi) specifications. (The DFI scanner software seems to do this.) For PCX files, there is a horizontal and a vertical dpi specification. For a hand scanner image file, these two values should be equal and a multiple of 100. When reading the first of a series of PCX files to merge, if these two dpi specs are not equal then MergeIt will try to determine which value is correct and display its choice to you. If the choice is correct then press "enter" (<cr>), otherwise input the correct dpi value (as a whole number) before <cr>. The remaining PCX files to merge will use this dpi value if these files also don't have proper dpi specifications. These reference block errors (if using automatic merging) will NOT cause the program to halt: One or both reference blocks may not be detected in the top left and right regions that the program analyzes. The left block is always required for determining the left vertical cutting line. The right block is not important if vertical cutting method 1 is used. Analysis will be finished more quickly if a right block is detected. If it is excluded in your scanning setup, an erroneous region of the image may be detected as a reference block and the image section will be cut down too much from the top. The bottom edge of one or both reference blocks may never be reached within the limits of the top region which program analyzes. Cutting After determining the desired boundaries for the cut image, including any user offsets, the image available may be smaller than needed. This is most commonly the case if a user offset extends a cutting edge beyond the image. The program prompts you to approve cutting adjustments if image available is too small. If you do not approve of the adjustment, the program will halt. Special Input Image Considerations For Automatic Merging Most documents to be scanned and merged will be on white/off-white paper and will be easily distinguished by the program from the reference blocks. This is necessary to determine the top edge of the cut image. If the document is too dark, a plain white border of 1/16" or more may tacked to the top of the document (perhaps by simply attaching a plain piece of paper to the back). The user may then specify a top edge offset to obtain the desired cut image. If the document to be scanned is a simple page of full width text, then merging is straightforward. If the images' edges to be merged just contain adjacent lines of text or text and picture then you will probably get a very satisfactory merge the 1st time, automatically, without any user trimming. If you are attempting to merge a diagram or picture across image sections then you may sometimes find the automatic merge to be unacceptable. The strength of MergeIt is its absolute repeatability (if the same images and initial values file are used) and its predictability if the initial values file is changed with respect to user offsets. This allows you to make shifts in the merge process down to the single dot/line level. By keeping a record of small trim adjustments, you can make small corrections to the initial values file to improve the automatic merge process. MergeIt can NOT automatically compensate for the following scanned image error: a) One image is rotated with respect to the other. This is usually caused by twisting the scanner unit while scanning. It can be corrected by using a left vertical guide edge. A lower guide bar may be attached to the scanner handle if necessary. No software can correct this. The following scanned image error can not be dealt with by the automatic merging process but rather by use of the automatic trimming process: b) One image is shorter than the other and gets misaligned. While moving the scanner, the tracking roller on the bottom got stuck or skipped. Perhaps there is some dirt on it that is changing its diameter (and therefore possibly changing the apparent distance being scanned). Perhaps you moved over the image too quickly and lost proper registration. Typically hand scanners show a dot registration variability as they roll of 1 or 2 dots/inch. The steadier and more repeatable the image scanning stroke, the better. MergeIt allows you to view the merge process, use automatic trimming and manually trim the images to compensate for this. *** I strongly suggest that you introduce yourself to trimming images by *** making use of the tutorial. Read "Tutor.Txt". If you are more inclined to 'figure it out as you go', at least please read Quick StartUp in "Read.Me". Manual Image Merging If you wish to not use the reference blocks to automatically merge, set the second parameter on line 4 of the initial values file=0 (# of dots to average when determining reference block coordinates). Merging will be done at the left extreme edge of each scanned section. The right edge of each merged section may be cut as it is in automatic merging by the 2nd parameter on the corresponding image parameter line (lines 6.. in the initial values file). If this parameter is set to 0.0 then the full width of the scanned image will be merged. Some sample manual merge initial values files are supplied. "Manl50.ini" and "Manl80.ini" are for image sections 5.0" and 8.0" in height, respectively. "Manl-01.ini" will merge varying height image sections by calculating the height of the right image section after cutting 0.1" from the bottom. They all merge image files named ImageA1.pcx and ImageA2.pcx. To facilitate manual merging, it is important that the scanned image sections have sufficient extra around the edges to allow you to move sections to successfully merge. MergeIt always reserves at least 10 lines from each input image's bottom to assure enough movement to accomplish a merge. It is probably initially easier to manually merge an unrotated image (the display matches the physical orientation used while scanning). For unrotated merging, the height of each scanned image section should be somewhat more than the desired height of the composite image to assure enough upward movement. (Note that downward movement is not possible if a merged section starts at the top of a scanned image file). The user does have the option of performing upward movement past the lower edge of an input image. A black area will be added to the composite image as necessary to fill-in. This area may be removed from the composite by inserting lines at the bottom of the composite when this region is displayed. Manual merging of a rotated image is somewhat limited due to the need to process rotated image regions. If the scanned image section is large enough, then an extra border of up to 16 dots is included around the rotated image region to merge. Therefore the maximum movement in any direction that includes more of an image section in the composite image is never more than 16 dots. If more movement is necessary, the rotated image region may be "pushed" left or right 8 dots at a time. The "empty" image area is filled in by 1 of 3 methods: a) White dots b)Black dots c)Copy image edge adjacent to the area. Of course, you can also manually insert/delete lines on the left edge of an image to effectively move it to the right/left. Note that manual insert/delete modifications will NOT be seen by the automatic trimming process (described below). VIEWING/TRIMMING MERGED EDGES Generally: Initial feedback of user trim commands is given through beeps. A single, short medium pitched beep indicates more feedback is necessary to finish a user trim operation. A double medium-high pitched beep indicates a completed trim operation. All image trim commands may be repeated before the modified image is processed and redisplayed. Entering a simple <cr> from the main menu terminates the trimming process and starts redisplay and/or merging. The end of user trimming and the restarting of image processing is signaled by a triple beep. A longer, low-pitched single beep indicates an error or trim/ movement limit has been reached. Global shifts of one scanned image with respect to another is accomplished with the cursor keys. This movement is seen by the automatic trimming process. Internal scanned image adjustments (deleted/added lines and dots) are initiated with the insert/delete keys. For unrotated merging, up to 50 insert/delete trim operations may be performed (and recalled if the merge process is restarted midway thru) . More operations may be performed as necessary if you are willing to erase the earliest ones. If rotated, up to 50 operations may be performed at each scanned image boundary between 2 images. In this case the operations are performed on the lower image (as displayed on the screen). None of the user line insertion/deletion image modifications are seen by the automatic trimming process. Rotated Image Trim Process & User Commands The top and bottom margins of each rotated & scanned image will be displayed. 100 image lines will be displayed for each margin (i.e. 200 lines will be shown of each merged boundary area) and a short beep will sound after each margin is fully displayed. At this time modifications are possible. Top Edge Merging: The user can move the top edge of an image left or right up to 16 dots, image permitting. Note that the width of the image is maintained so that the motion limits may be less than 16 dots if the scanned image doesn't have this much extra border width. Note that an image can also be moved to the right or left by inserting or deleting lines at the left edge of the whole image. (This may require moving the left displayed view to the left one or more times.) The image to be merged may also be moved down by as much as 16 lines (again image border permitting). Moving this image down will cause more of this image to be included in the composite image. This image may also be moved up, cutting off more of this image at the merge boundary. There is no limit to this upward motion. Top Edge User Commands: Cursor Up/Down: Will subtract/add lines to the top of the current image at the boundary with the previous image section's bottom edge. Cursor Left/Right: Move the lower image left/right with respect to the above (previous) image section edge. '1'..'9': Set size of image movement performed by cursor keys. Size is in number of lines or dots the lower image is shifted by each cursor key entry. Program starts with a value=1. <Insert> (<Delete>): Insert (delete) dots at the marker location for all lines in the current displayed image section. A 2nd menu will appear: Command options: Home/End: Move marker 1/8 of image width to the left/right. SpaceBar: Move marker 1 dot to the right. BkSpace : Move marker 1 dot to the left. '+' : Make modification at marker location. '-' : Remove modification at marker location (or the first modification to the right of the marker). <cr> Esc: Exit the insert/delete operation. 'L' : Remove the left most entry in the catagory chosen 'R' : Remove the right most entry in the catagory chosen These 2 commands operate on both insert and delete entries (i.e. it does not depend on which catagory you are in: 'U' : Remove all insert & delete entries from the currently viewed images. 'P' : Restore all insert & delete entries from the currently viewed images. This reverses either user removal or automatic removal when a new automatic merging process was initiated. Cntl-Left/Right cursor (Hold down <Control> key while pressing cursor): "Push" the image left/right (use this when you are at the movement limit of the left/right cursor) by 8 dots. This is done by filling in the necessary edge area by 1 of 3 methods: a) Copy image edge to fill in area (default). b) Fill area in white c) Fill area in black 'F' : Select the method to fill-in when "pushing" the image left/right. A 2nd menu will come up only if you are currently "pushing". The top line will display which of 3 fill-in methods is being used. Command options: 'W': Fill-in area with white dots 'B': Fill-in area with black dots 'C': Copy image edge to fill-in area. 'U': Undo image "pushing". <Alt-V>: Change a viewed image region. A 2nd menu will appear. 2 user choices must follow: Choose: Home/End=>Select which viewed region to shift. Home is on the left, End is on the right. Choose: Home/End=>Move the selected view region to the adjacent left/right section of the image. <Alt-T>: Change automatic trimming parameters. A 2nd menu will appear. See below. <cr> : Ends user input command and executes desired action/refreshes display. 'G' : Continue merge process without viewing (only operates if no image modifications are done). 'H' : Toggle display of general help menu with auto trim status. When starting MergeIt, default is to display whenever possible. Toggle will cause general help menu to display only when an inappropriate key is pressed, auto trim status only when an auto trim parameter is changed. Bottom Edge Trimming: The user may shorten the image up to 16 lines. The viewed areas of the image may be shifted left or right. There MAY be a few image lines to add to the initially viewed image. Essentially, trimming should be done to erase small sections of text or picture at the bottom edge. It is NOT possible to shift the bottom edge of the image left or right since the upper edge has already been merged to the previous scanned image and most of this image has been built. Once the next image is displayed below this edge, no more trimming at this edge will be possible. Bottom Edge User Commands: Cursor Up/Down: Will subtract/add lines to the bottom of the image displayed that will then be merged with the top edge of the next section. '1'..'9': Set size of image movement performed by cursor keys. Size is in number of lines or dots the displayed image is shifted by each cursor key entry. Program starts with a value=1. <Alt-V>: Change a viewed image region. A 2nd menu will appear. 2 user choices must follow: Choose: Home/End=>Select which viewed region to shift. Home is on the left, End is on the right. Choose: Home/End=>Move the selected view region to the adjacent left/right section of the image. <cr>: Ends user input command and executes desired action/refreshes display. 'G' : Continue merge process without viewing. 'H' : Toggle display of general help menu with auto trim status. When starting MergeIt, default is to display whenever possible. Toggle will cause general help menu to display only when an inappropriate key is pressed, auto trim status only when an auto trim parameter is changed. Unrotated Image Trim Process & User Commands Each output image line is made up of image lines from all scanned sections. Therefore some changes of image merging require that the merging process restart from the beginning. Initially, the right most 2 merge regions are shown, with the vertical boundary between the sections centered. A marker is shown below the right region, denoting the image on the right side of this merge region as the image merge region that may be trimmed. Home/End keys may be used to change the image section to be trimmed (home is to the left). The cursor keys may be used to then move the selected region. Note that the up/down cursor keys must shift the whole scanned region (which may affect 2 merge boundaries). The left/right cursor keys only shift the image at the edge that is selected (i.e. image dots are added or subtracted at the border). The movement limits are determined by the limits of the scanned images. The viewed merge regions may be shifted left/right (if there are >3 input image files) by use of the Alt-V key followed by home or end keys. Home will shift the viewed regions 2 regions over to the left (or 1 if that is the max shift). The end key will do likewise in the right direction. Unrotated Image User Commands: These four cursor commands will force a restart of the merge process. In general you should reach the best whole image alignment as early as possible in the merge process to eliminate having to restart merging. Cursor Up/Down: Will shift the selected image section up/down. While moving an image section up, you may reach the bottom limit of the input image. A 2nd menu will pop up asking you if you wish to exceed the limit. Doing so may add a black area to the bottom of the composite image corresponding to this section. This can be removed by inserting lines manually when you get to the bottom of the images in the merge process. Left/Right cursor:Move the selected image left/right with respect to the selected merge boundary. '1'..'9': Set size of image movement performed by cursor keys. Size is in number of lines or dots the selected image section is shifted by each cursor key entry. Program starts with a value=1. Home/End: Select which viewed merge regions are modified. Home moves to the left, End to the right. <cr>: Ends user input and continues the merging process. If no user modification is has been initiated on the currently displayed image region, then the program proceeds to the next region. Otherwise, the current region is redrawn or the merge process restarts at the top (the latter occurs when whole image section motion is inputted thru the cursor keys). <Insert> (<Delete>): Will allow user to insert or (delete) individual lines in an image region in view. The region to modify is previously selected by home/end keys. A 2nd menu will appear. Command options: PgUp/PgDn: Moves line change marker up/down 20 lines. SpaceBar : Moves marker down 1 line. BkSpace : Moves marker up 1 line. '+' : Performs desired modification at marker location '-' : Remove the chosen catagory of modification at the marker (or the nearest modification below the marker) <cr> <Esc>: Ends insert or delete process. Return to main menu. 'T' : Remove the top most (of current display) entry in the catagory you are in (i.e. insert or delete) 'B' : Remove the bottom most (of current display) entry in the catagory you are in. These 3 commands operate on both insert and delete entries (i.e. it does not depend on which catagory you are in): 'U': Remove all insert & delete entries from the currently viewed images. 'P': Restore all insert & delete entries from the currently viewed images. This reverses either user removal or automatic removal when a new automatic merging process was initiated. 'S': If there is < 5 insert/delete entry spaces left, delete the 1st entry (i.e. the 1 closest to the very top of the entire merged image). As long as the affected region of the image is no longer visible, this command will NOT affect the outputted image. Rather it frees up modification entry space if you are running out when you are near the bottom of a merged image. If you do restart the merge process at the top, then the deleted entry and its modification will be lost. <Alt-V>: Change the merged regions shown. This command is only valid if more than 2 merge regions exist. A 2nd menu will appear. Choose: Home/End=>View merge regions to the left/right of the currently viewed regions. If possible, two new regions will be shown; otherwise, one new region will be shown in the direction of shift (Home shifts left, End shifts right). <Alt-T>: Change automatic trimming parameters. A 2nd menu will appear. See below. 'B' : Rebuild the entire merged image without viewing until the current view region is reached. Useful if rebuilding is required by previous trim commands. 'R' : Restart the merge process with full view, modification capability. 'G' : Continue the merge process without continuing to view or trim (applicable only if no image modifications have just been made to the viewed image). 'H' : Toggle display of general help menu with auto trim status. When starting MergeIt, default is to display whenever possible. Toggle will cause general help menu to display only when an inappropriate key is pressed and auto trim status only when an auto trim parameter is changed. On-Line Menu Help Appropriate user inputs are shown if the three files with extensions ".ras" are located in the directory where MergeIt is. If the files are not present, a low beep will sound when they are searched for (i.e. when a new menu would be shown). Unless toggled off, whenever a merged image region is displayed, the lower region of the screen will show appropriate input commands with the bottom line showing the current automatic trimming status. If an appropriate command is entered which activates a secondary series of commands, this new menu will be displayed. Ending this secondary input process will bring the general menu back. On the right side of the first line of the general menu shows a "triangle symbol=#". This "#" is the size of the user image movement produced by cursor key input. This movement is measured in dots or lines of image shift. The automatic trimming status line will change whenever the user causes a parameter change in this process. The status line shows whether auto trimming is ON, OFF, or disabled (never initialized). If auto trimming is ON or OFF, then the layout of the full line will is: AutoTrim :ON [2] Viewed Image Trim: Now[ 33] Redo NEW ^ ^ ^ ^ Status of Max line shift # of lines added/ Auto Trim will Process when auto trimming deleted to image be redone The trimming status of the currently viewed changeable image(s) may also be "NO" if no auto trimming changes were made. The trim status is also shown for what will happen if the current view region is redisplayed. In addition to the On/Off states which are possible for the current view, the "Redo" status may be NEW (if an auto trimming reanalysis will be done on the currently viewed merge region). Auto trimming reanalysis is automatically initiated by whole image movement by the user (with the cursor keys). Automatic Trimming Process It is important to distingush auto trimming from auto merging. The latter is alignment of adjacent whole scanned images by means of black reference blocks located across merged regions on the top edge of each scanned image. Each image is shifted as a whole with respect to an adjacent image. In contrast, auto trimming attempts to compensate for the small, inevitable errors in image registration as one moves a hand scanner across a piece of paper. That is, over the course of a few inches of travel, only 198 lines may be generated during the first inch, 203 lines during the next inch, etc. When attempting to merge images, these errors will appear as varied misalignment at the borders of merged image sections-even if the beginning image edges are aligned. Auto trimming starts at the beginning of the image and works down in groups of 16-20 image lines (about 0.1" at 200 dpi), attempting to compensate for this mis-registration by inserting/deleting lines as required to preserve alignment across the merged boundaries. MergeIt is capable of performing up to 200 insert/delete line operations. When auto trimming is performed on a displayed image region, any user modifications of line insertion or deletion are surpressed when the image is redrawn. These modifications may be restored through the insert/delete menu option "P", but only if no additional insert/delete modifications are made before the restoration. Outline of automatic trimming process: 1) The process starts with the first 16-20 lines generated by the hand scanner (top of an unrotated image, the left edge of a rotated image). 2) The initial alignment of black and white dots across boundaries is checked. If it is perfect, nothing more is done. 3) If not perfect, the image line group (of 16-20 lines) is shifted along the boundary, in one direction, one line at a time and a measure of how many lines are aligned is made. Modification by inserting lines is tested first. If an unrotated image is being merged, then up to two line shifts are made. For a rotated image, the maximum shift is user specified from 1-9 lines. If the best alignment found is better than no shifting by a user defined number of lines, then this insertion of lines is done. 4) If the best alignment is not good enough, the shifting and alignment measurement procedure is performed in the other direction, deletion. A similar alignment criteria test is performed. If it also fails, then no deletion of lines is performed. 5) The next 16-20 lines are selected and steps #2..#4 are performed. If this is an unrotated image merge, then this process is repeated until the next viewed image group of 200 lines is built and displayed. For rotated merging, this process is repeated until the right edge of the merged boundary is reached. Then the top 100 lines of the scanned image is modified and displayed below the bottom edge of the previous image. Control of auto trimming in Initial Values File (line#4, values 3 and 4): Automatic trimming may be disabled when starting MergeIt by setting the alignment threshold=0 in the initial values file. Merging will be speeded up somewhat and a little less memory will be needed by MergeIt. BUT the user will NOT be able to activate auto trimming. Automatic trimming may be enabled by setting this threshold<>0. If it is <0, then auto trimming will initially be turned OFF (but readily turned ON by the user). A value >0 will turn auto trimming ON from the start. The maximum line shift when doing rotated image merging must be specified even if unrotated merging is chosen later. A typical value is 2-3. A high value increases the possiblity of an erronous auto trim adjustment (see below under hints). It may be set from 1-9. User Commands: When doing unrotated image merging, user input is possible when viewing a merged region. For rotated merging, user input is possible when the top edge of a rotated image is in view (which is being merged and trimmed to the bottom edge of a previous rotated image that is also in view). From the general menu, <Alt-T> (i.e. alter trimming) will bring up a menu of possible auto trimming commands. It is important to distingush between turning auto trimming on/off and deleting/restores its effects on a viewed image. The former only takes effect the NEXT time an auto trimming line analysis is performed, the latter affects the implementation (and viewing) of the results from the LAST auto trimming analysis. Initiating auto trim causes the process to be performed (or reperformed) on the currently viewed image. 'Y' : Turn ON auto trim process (does NOT affect current view/images) 'N' : Turn OFF auto trim process (does NOT affect current view/images) 'I' : Initiate (or reinitiate) auto trim process on current display. This will surpress any user insert/delete modifications. (These modifications may be restored. See Insert/Delete commands above.) If OFF, the auto trim process will be turned ON. 'U' : Eliminate present auto trim effects on currently displayed image 'P' : Restore present auto trim effects on currently displayed image Esc <cr>: Do nothing (exit this auto trim input process) For rotated merging process only: '1'..'9': Choose max vert line shift while trimming each 16 line image region (Note that the top of the 1st image is not merged so no trimming is done but the parameters may still be changed). If auto trimming is turned on, then the analysis is performed whenever a new merged region is brought into view or whenever one image region is moved as a WHOLE with respect to another region. Whole image movement is performed with the cursor up/down and left/right keys. Individual image line insertion/deletion by the user in the viewed images does not cause an auto trimming reanalysis. (User line insertion/deletion is not seen by the auto trim process). If a reanalysis is done after the user does manual line insertion/deletion, these manual modifications are initially surpressed in the rebuilt and displayed image. To restore the manual insertion/deletions, after doing the reanalysis, go into the insert or delete menu and enter "P" to restore previous entries. Note that you must do this BEFORE adding new insert/delete entries. Hints: Auto trimming works best when there is continuing image lines running across the merge boundaries. If many inches of scanned image boundaries are solid black or white, then auto trim may not be able to make enough adjustment when an edge is finally reached. In this case, it is probably best to use a rotated image merge process and set the shift maximum high (erronous adjustments won't be made in solid black or white regions anyway). Note that you can change this maximum shift value as you move from one merge boundary to another if the quality of the image at these boundaries is different. It is probably not a good practice to set the maximum shift high all the time since this can lead to large erroneous alignment adjustments. If an image has some cross boundary detail every inch or so then a maximum shift of about 2-3 seems to work well. When working with curved image lines/areas across boundaries, it is important that adjacent scanned images have the correct amount of overlap (i.e. position towards or away from each other) before trying to use auto trim to improve alignment. (The tutorial demonstrates this when merging within an egg-like object.) If you are just merging scanned images from a typed page where you can put your boundaries between typed lines, then disable auto trimming. Auto trimming will do nothing with white boundary regions and just slow the merging process down. When doing rotated image merging, even though no auto trimming can be done at the top edge of the first image, the user can still modify auto trim parameters. In particular, when doing any manual merging it is probably best to start with auto trimming enabled but off. This will enable manual alignment between images without the confounding adjustments of auto trimming. After arriving at a good positioning of adjacent images in the merge region where the hand scanning started, (i.e. at the top of the screen for an unrotated merged image or at the left side for a rotated one), turn on auto trim and have it analyze the boundary region and make alignment adjustments. Memory Issues The program occupies about 140K bytes. A programming criterion was to be able to handle a rotated merge of scanned image sections that are 4" wide and 9" long at 300DPI in the 640K DOS space. This requires 405K bytes to store the image to be rotated, which requires at least 545K bytes of free memory, not an impossible goal. If the scanned images do not require rotation when merging, then memory requirements are much less and won't be a concern. If there is insufficient memory available for rotation, then you may specify storage to disk (in the same directory as the other image files). For the sake of time (and your hard disk!) I recommend you do this on a RAM disk. First put the scanned images to be merged on the RAM disk before starting MergeIt. Normally, when MergeIt does a rotated merge, it stores the complete bottom lines of each image (sections of which are viewed) so that the user may change the merged sections being viewed even when the top of the next image is being processed. If memory is tight, MergeIt may ask you if you want this temporary storage to be done to disk. If you say "no", you will only be able to change the merged sections to view when just the bottom edge of a scanned image section is visible, i.e. once the top of the next image section is visible, you can't change what regions you see. Fatal Program Error Message Codes 2: File not found 3: DOS directory Path invalid 4: Too many files open. Perhaps the config.sys file doesn't specify enough open files. Set to "Files=20". 5: File could not be opened, perhaps directory is full. 101: File could not be written to since the disk is full. 106: Numerical entry in initial values file is incorrect. 203: Insufficient memory to store image. -3: Graphics error, driver file not found. Appropriate file (Herc.BGI, EgaVga.BGI,...) is not in directory where executable program is located. Integrating Scanning Operation and Merging (Registered users only) ScanIt is a small shell program to integrate the scanning and merging process. It executes the necessary image scanning utility to create the image section files and then runs "MergeIt" to put the image sections together. The process may be repeated for up to 100x, generating merged image files with names such as page1.pcx,page2.pcx,... While designed around the Logitech ScanMan DOS scanning utility, it was written to be flexible enough for adaptation. It MUST be started in the directory where itself and ALL executable files are located. The initial values file may be in a different directory. The generated image files may be stored in yet another directory. For full documentation, see "ScanIt.Doc". For the LogiTech Scanner, the DOS scan utility is called Scan.Exe and is run from the DOS command line with a line such as: Scan.Exe scan1.pcx 4IN 9IN where the scanned image is written to the pcx format file "scan1.pcx" with a width of 4 in. and a length of 9 in. Typical Input Line for use with this scan utility (best written in a batch file): Scanit.exe Mergeit.exe /image3.ini Scan.exe [filename] [width]IN 9IN The phrase "[filename]" is the location where ScanIt will place the scanned image filename to be created by scan.exe. when it executes the utility. The phrase "[width]" is the location where ScanIt will place the desired width to scan (in inches) when it executes scan.exe. Both of these entries are generated from the initial values file. Typical Batch File: cd D:\PAINT D: Scanit.exe mergeit.exe /e:\scan\image3.ini Scan.exe [filename] [width]IN 9IN Legal Notices MergeIt COPYR. 1991 Dennis DiBart ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Disclaimer of Warranty: This software and documentation are sold "as is" and without warranties as to performance of merchantability or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. Because of the various hardware and software environments into which this program may be put, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. Good data processing procedure dictates that any program be thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program. Any liability of the seller will be limited exclusively to product replacement or refund of purchase price.