Image processing activity

Use the automatic Image processing activity to process images that are imported and images that are scanned from an MFP.

If a process has an Image processing activity, it is applied to all documents that the job gets created for, irrespective of the method selected for creating the job (MFP, Web scan, Scan create new job, Upload, Import, Mobile and the rest). For example, if you scan 10 documents or upload them or import them upon job creation, all of them are processed by an Image processing activity if there is one in the job’s process.

To process images that are scanned from an MFP, you must add the Image processing activity to the map. If this activity is the first activity in a process that is started by a Device create new job form, you must set the precondition for this activity to [SCANNED[ >0.

The Image processing activity uses Transformation Server to convert documents and images into TIFF images and apply image enhancement filters. The following formats can be converted:

  • BMP

  • GIF

  • HTML

  • JPG

  • Microsoft Word in .docx (Word 2007 or later) and .doc (prior to Word 2007) format

  • Microsoft Excel in .xlsx and .xls format (versions Excel 97 through Excel 2010)

  • PDF

  • PNG

  • RTF

  • TXT

  • We recommend that you use the Image processing activity to process PDF documents so that a TIFF representation is available for actions such as OCR lassoing. For more information, refer to "PDF handling" section in TotalAgility Best Practices Guide.

  • To convert an image file to TIFF, use the Document conversion activity and then use any other Capture activities in your process map. For example, to convert PNG to TIFF, use the Document conversion activity for conversion, and then use the Image processing activity to improve the TIFF using the EVRS settings or image enhancement settings.

The Image processing activity uses EVRS settings or image enhancement settings and parameters, such as Paper size, Resolution, Color mode in the Scan/VRS profile for normalization. The activity has two tasks: converting documents of all formats to tiff and normalizing all tiffs so that the resulting document is tiff and has the desired size, resolution and color depth.

Advanced EVRS settings take preference over the image enhancement settings. For example, if you select Auto rotate in the Image enhancement settings section, but add an Advanced EVRS settings string that does not enable Auto rotate, the Auto rotate setting is disabled because the presence of the string causes EVRS to ignore the image enhancement setting.

The Delete blank page setting is an exception. The EVRS string can only enable Blank page detection, but if you have to delete a blank page, you must select the Delete blank page setting.

Multipage documents and TIFF files are split into separate files for each page.

Document files (Word, Excel, HTML, RTF, and TXT) are identified automatically according to their MIME type. If the MIME type is not set or cannot be recognized, the file is treated as an unknown format. If the process fails at runtime, the job is suspended and the job note is updated with a message describing the reason for suspension.

The Image processing activity creates a record in Job history or View job in the TotalAgility Workspace at runtime. Where applicable, the text from the source file is saved as OCR data. Multi page documents are stored as document objects, and image files are stored at the page level. The original files are stored with the document source.

The Expected cost and Help text properties are not applicable for the Image processing activity.

You can increase the Image processing logging by modifying Kofax.CEBPM.ProcessingService.Host.exe.config available at the following location:

Kofax\TotalAgility\Transformation Server

The default log level is: <add name="TraceLevelSwitch" value="Warning"/>

To enable full image processing logging, replace 'Warning' with 'All', This may be useful for troubleshooting.

How to: Configure an Image processing activity