“Capturing” is the first step in the process – a generic term X-CAGO uses to describe the capturing of a digital file or scanning of original paper or microfilm– whether all or part of a newspaper or magazine. The graphical user interface, specifically designed for the processing of captured print media enables the ability to quickly and easily work with large size images and attach keyword and other workflow-based meta information to the captured images. Most importantly, X-CAGO’s technology allows the creation of full-depth grayscale and colour files, eliminating poor picture quality while producing razor-sharp copies of captured text. Grayscale values are used throughout the entire process – from scanning to clipping to optical character recognition (OCR) and printing. The photos and graphics in X-CAGO’s clippings are therefore true grayscale- not emulated grayscale as with traditional clipping systems. This capability eliminates interference pattern problems such as moiré (a rippling effect) when rescaling clips.

X-CAGO’s grayscale technology is also very effective in optimising optical character recognition input – significantly increasing the output quality and accuracy of the OCR process.

The second step is “Segmentation”. After a newspaper or magazine page has been captured, X-CAGO’s software segments the articles with its patented Automatic Intelligent Recognition Technology (AIRT). This technology is the result of years of cooperation, research and development with X-CAGO’s development partner, Océ. Captured images of magazines, newspapers, journals, and newsletters are segmented into constituent parts like headlines, text blocks, pictures, and captions. Furthermore, this reliable and intelligent technology determines which of these blocks compose an article as well as determining the reading order of the article. With segmentation, clipping an article takes no more than a simple mouse click on the desired article. To clip all articles on a segmented page, ClipWorX will extract all of them at once and output them to target pages.

The third step is “Layout”. This involves fitting the clipped article onto a target page. In conventional manual clipping, often an article would have to be cut into several pieces and perhaps even scaled down to fit on the target page. X-CAGO’s ClipWorX software however automatically reformats the article, fitting it onto the target page without sacrificing readability and avoiding all the physical labour of a manual clipping operation.

The original layout of the article need not be lost with such an approach. If desired, the software will add a thumbnail depicting a miniature copy of the full-page scan with the original layout of the article highlighted. The size and resolution of thumbnails are easily configured to meet the exact needs of a client’s readers.

The final steps are “Finishing” and “Output”. The clippings produced are written in Adobe PostScript®, providing the best possible print quality. The software can also create Adobe® PDF documents, generated according to a client’s quality specifications.

Source details can quickly be generated and added to each and every article. Source information includes newspaper or magazine name, date, page number, subject, title, author, keywords, etc. By deploying grayscale technology and using blocks of an article from the determined reading order, X-CAGO’s OcrWorX™ is capable of producing the most accurate OCR results if scanned from hardcopy originals or microfilm possible. OcrWorX can also produce flexible XML output, with customisable tags.