'Scan Tailor Featured' and '"auras" in mixed pages'

Scan Tailor specific announcements, releases, workflows, tips, etc. NO FEATURE REQUESTS IN THIS FORUM, please.

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b0bcat
Posts: 49
Joined: 30 Nov 2012, 21:37
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Country: UK

'Scan Tailor Featured' and '"auras" in mixed pages'

Post by b0bcat »

OK, some may consider this post unnecessary but as Scan Tailor featured appears to be mentioned only here (and just en passant):

http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... r+Featured

-- I thought it might help others afflicted by the 'auras' phenomenon if I memorialised clearly the existence of "Scan Tailor Featured" for Windows (the source is also linked herebelow) and in particular its handling of illumination equalization for picture zones in Mixed Mode. This addresses the issue highlighted at:

Scantailor "auras" in mixed pages
http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... =21&t=3029

"Illumination equalization ... is always enabled for picture zones in Mixed mode."


I found at http://www.djvu-soft.narod.ru/scan/djvu_imager_en.htm
the following linked:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/scantai ... /featured/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/scantai ... e/download

-- as will be seen from the Readme copied below, this version gives the option of not applying equalization illumination to picture zones in Mixed Mode.

I have used it with some existing saved project files created in Scan Tailor-0.9.11.1-32bit and not only does it seem fully compatible with them but it has (so far anyway) removed the 'auras' issue.

Scan Tailor Featured


Specific features:

1. Delete_3_Red_Points

The 3 central red points on the topmost (bottom-most) horizontal blue line of the dewarping mesh are now eliminated.

2. Manual_Dewarp_Auto_Switch

The dewarping mode is now set to MANUAL (from OFF) after the user has moved the dewarping mesh.

3. Blue_Dewarp_Line_Vert_Drag

You can move the topmost (bottom-most) horizontal blue line of the dewarping mesh up and down as a whole - if you grab it at the most left (right) red point - holding down the CTRL key.

4. Square_Picture_Zones

You can create the rectangular picture zones - holding down the CTRL key.

5. Ortho_Corner_Move_Square_Picture_Zones

You can move the (rectangular) picture zones corners in an orthogonal manner - holding down the CTRL key.

6. Export_Subscans

You can export the output scans renamed to the consecutive sequence 0001.tif, 0002.tif, ... , 0010.tif, ..., 0100.tif, ... . Additionally you can "split" the mixed output scans into the pairs of a "foreground" subscan and a "background" subscan - for the further DjVu-encoding using DjVu Imager or its analogues.

Read the article "Using DjVu Imager" at http://www.djvu-soft.narod.ru/scan/djvu_imager_en.htm

7. Auto_Save_Project

Set the "auto-save project" checked in the Settings menu and you will get your project auto-saved at every current page change provided you have originally saved your new project. Works at the batch processing too.

8. Dont_Equalize_Illumination_Pic_Zones

If you set the global option "Don't equalize the illumination in picture zones" in the "Settings" menu, then your newly created picture zones will not be bleached out. The suggested common usage scenario would look like this:

a. Process all the scans the common way.
b. Set "Don't equalize the illumination in picture zones".
c. Delete from your hard disk the mixed scans where the picture zones are bleached out. Instead of the deletion you might assure the question mark on the needed scans by whatever means.
d. Run the batch processing.

9. Original_Foreground_Mixed

This is a checkbox "Keep the original color and illumination in foreground subscans" it the Export window. It is an additional export option. If you set it, then during the subscans export this option will force the foreground subscans (of every mixed scan) be exported not as black-and-white (originally) but in the the original color and the illumination mode. This option gives a user the freedom to use his own binarization (or illumination-correction) tool for the foreground subscans (of the mixed scans).

10. Picture_Shape

This option is taken from Scan Tailor Enhanced. It adds the possibility for the mixed pages to choose from the free-shaped (original) and rectangular-surrounded picture zones. The latter does not improve the original algorithm, but surronds the detected "blobs" with the rectangular shapes, and the rectangles that intersect join to one.

Additionally I fixed a bug in this option (with the help from Scan Tailor Plus, where this bug was fixed a long time ago, but a bit different way). The bug caused the question marks on the mixed output thumbnails after opening a completely processed project.

11. Quadro_Zoner

Another rectangular picture zone shape. This option is based on Picture_Shape, Square_Picture_Zones and Ortho_Corner_Move_Square_Picture_Zones. It squeezes every Picture_Shape zone down to the real rectangular picture outline and then replaces it (the resulting raster zone) by a vector rectangular zone, so that a user could easily adjust it afterwards (by moving its corners in an orthogonal manner).

12. Marginal_Dewarping

An automatic dewarping mode. Works ONLY with such raw scans that have the top and bottom curved page borders (on the black background). It automatically sets the red points of the blue mesh along these borders (to create a distortion model) and then dewarps the scan according to them. Works best on the low-curved scans.

13. Auto_Dewarping_Vert_Half_Correction

This patch corrects the original auto-dewarping in half the cases when it fails. If the vertical content boundary angle (calculated by auto-dewarping) exceeds an empirical value (2.75 degrees from vertical), the patch adds a new point to the distortion model (with the coordinates equal to the neighboring points) to make this boundary vertical. The patch works ONLY for the linear end of the top (bottom) horizontal line of the blue mesh (and not for the opposite curved end), because I don't know yet how to interpolate a curve (while there is no problem to interpolate a line).

Note: all the new specific features have the complete Russian translation.

Author: monday2000 (Russia).
Source: README, updated 2013-05-23

I was somewhat relieved to find this alternative route to a - temporary at least - fix since I'd previously spent hours fruitlessly web and YouTube searching for a simple exposition of how to (a) zone portions of a greyscale tiff to locked/do not change and (b) convert the remainder to monochrome, using either GIMP or (maybe) Photoshop. (btw if anyone HAS got such a link, pls feel free to post).

Anyway I hope this helps.
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