Patent ID: 7487438

Claim:
A method of processing a filled-in form and a blank form to generate a virtual filled-in form, the filled-in form including a first plurality of pixel values, each of the first plurality of pixel values corresponding to one location in a first array of row and column pixel locations, the blank form including a second plurality of pixel values, each of the second plurality of pixel values corresponding to one location in a second array of row and column pixel locations, the method comprising: processing the filled-in form to identify column borders defining a region in which a first predetermined majority of foreground pixel values are located; processing the filled-in form to identify row borders defining a region in which a second predetermined majority of foreground pixel values are located, wherein the identified column and row borders define a rectangular filled-in main image region; determining a main image aspect ratio as a function of the determined row and column borders; comparing the determined main image aspect ratio of the filled-in form to a main aspect ratio of said blank form to determine if the determined main image aspect ratio is within a predetermined difference threshold of the main aspect ration of said blank form; and if it is determined that the aspect ratios are within the predetermined difference threshold, determining a scaling factor which can be used on one of the blank and filled-in forms to resize the main image area of one of the blank and filled-in forms so that the size of the main image area of the blank form and main image area of the filled-in form will match.