Patent ID: 7999657

Claim:
A method implemented in a data processing system, comprising: (a) generating an electronic original document image based on a source document, wherein the original document image includes an image representing the source document and at least three alignment markers, wherein each alignment marker is a barcode stamp and is located within a predefined distance from a corresponding one of at least three corners of a boundary of the original document image; (b) storing the original document image in a database; (c) printing the original document image to generate a printed document, whereby the printed document bears the at least three alignment markers; (d) obtaining an electronic target document image from the printed document or a copy thereof, whereby the target document image contains the at least three alignment markers; (e) extracting document management information from the target document image, the document management information specifying a location within the database where the original document image is stored; (f) retrieving the original document image from the database based on the extracted document management information; (g) obtaining positions of the at least three alignment markers in the target document image; (h) obtaining positions of the at least three alignment markers in the original document image; (i) calculating a global mapping function between the original document image and the target document image using the positions of the alignment markers in the original document image and the target document image; and (j) calculating an aligned target document image using the target document image and the mapping function.