For a catalog vendor, form design is a key distinguishing factor between them and their competition. Forms must be attractive. They need to be targeted to the particular market segments. And they must evolve as marketing departments study their effectiveness. All order forms have a customer ID field, an address field, an order field.
Some forms contain check boxes, change of address fields, etc.
If these forms are categorized by the unique set of data fields they contain, we end up with a much smaller number of forms. Recognition technology that can scan a form, process the image, and identify and locate the data fields on that form is starting to hit the market. This system provides a fixed set of data-field types that recognizes anywhere on the form. At processing time, a form is recognized by the actual set of data fields it contains. This new technology simplifies the deployment as well as the maintenance of automated data entry systems.