Patent ID: 8509563

Claim:
A method for generating a soft copy document from a hard copy document, comprising: acquiring via photographs taken by a user at least two images of a single page of the hard copy document; providing feedback to the user indicating any parts of the single page not photographed and further indicating any of the at least two images that are of insufficient quality for generating the soft copy document; processing the acquired images to be better suited for soft copy document generation; combining the processed images resulting in a composite image that represents the single page of the hard copy document; recognizing one or more particular text elements in the composite image; identifying, by a document type module, one or more document types of the composite image, wherein the document type module is configured for identifying a plurality of document types including a word processor document type, a spreadsheet document type, a presentation document type, and form types of forms including business cards, facsimiles, and a form complying with a pre-defined template; recognizing further particular text elements in the composite image according to characteristics of the identified one or more document types; generating the soft copy document as at least one of the identified one or more document types, the soft copy document including the recognized one or more particular text elements and the recognized further particular text elements; and wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.