iKAN Scan Kofax Installation Prerequisites

Requirements

  • TWAIN Driver (scanner model and Operating System)
  • ISIS Driver (for Windows 7 only)
  • KOFAX Driver (scanner model)
  • iKAN Scan KOFAX – for scanning using the iKAN Thick Client
  • Logged into workstation with local administrator (full access)

**If you have a new scanner, all drivers are shipped with new scanners on a DVD. Please use this disk if possible.

 

The TWAIN driver can be downloaded from the following web page:

http://www.fujitsu.com/global/support/computing/peripheral/scanners/drivers/index.html#itwain

 

The KOFAX Driver can be downloaded from the following web page:

http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/peripherals/scanners/support/downloads_vrs.html

Note: you will need the ‘VRS5.0 PFU OEM’. The download for this is in the second section of this page – just scroll down slowly.

 

 

Installation

Once downloaded, you will need to unpack the installers. Create a directory called ‘ScannerDrivers’ under the ‘C:’ root. Copy both downloaded files to the ‘scanner drivers’ folder. I would recommend creating separate folders for KOFAX and TWAIN and moving the relevant files to each folder.

Double click the installer for each driver. This will spawn a Command Prompt window – you should see files unpacking to folders in the directory where you placed the packed installer.

For TWAIN, it will create a new folder called ‘DISK1’. Inside this folder is an application ‘SETUP.EXE’. Double click and run this to install the TWAIN driver. Accept and select all defaults.

The KOFAX installation will create a new folder for the KOFAX installation. Open the new folder and double click the ‘SETUP.EXE’ application. As with TWAIN, accept all the defaults. When prompted to select your source, select your scanner from the list. This will ensure that your source is default configured as part of the installation – if you miss this step, you can still create a source once the install is completed. Note: the KOFAX installation will require a reboot. After reboot, the installation will continue.

Installation note: I have noticed on recent installs that an error is displayed during install complaining that you need ‘administrator rights’ to install the software. I click the ‘OK’ button and the installation continues.

 

Once the reboot and installation has completed, you will be prompted to complete a registration of your KOFAX software. Please complete each of the top 3 boxes and register your software. You will then be prompted to check for updates to the KOFAX software – I strongly suggest that you accept and allow the software to search for an update. It almost never returns any updates (there are no updates pending that I know of), but if you do not check, it will periodically annoy the user to keep checking.

At this point, you should connect the scanner. Windows will recognize the device and display the connection status via the system tray.

 

 

Configuring KOFAX

The KOFAX installation comes with a test harness for configuring VRS. Under ‘All Programs’, click the ‘KOFAX VRS’ program group and select ‘VCDEMO’ or ‘KOFAX Test Application’. Note that the newer installations also call this ‘KOFAX TEST’.

 

Once the test harness loads, you will need to select a source to work with. Select ‘Source’ and ‘Scanner’. The dialog box should be populated with your scanner name – e.g. ‘Fujitsu 6130z with SVRS with AIPE’.

Once selected, the scan options should unlock – scan single and multi-page icons on the tool bar. Place a single page on the scanner and select the ‘Scan single page’ icon. Once the page scans, double click the VRS icon in the system tray.

 

Using the VRS Adjustment Controls

The VRS Adjustment Controls consist of up to six panels that give you options for adjusting image properties. The default settings are saved to a VRS profile called “Default settings.” Once you identify a set of adjustments that work well for a particular document type, you can save them in a custom profile that can be used in place of the default profile.

 

Using the Clarity Panel

This section gives you details about the Clarity panel, which gives you options to adjust the contrast, brightness, and gamma values for an image. In general, a high Contrast value enhances faint text and lines in your documents. Since brightness increases or decreases the overall density of your images, increasing the brightness level can clear up dark shaded documents. Gamma Correct is used to adjust images created with incorrect gamma encoding.

 

Brightness and Contrast

When the Auto Brightness check box is selected, VRS automatically assigns optimal values for brightness and displays those values in the manual Brightness slider and numeric text box. The Auto Brightness setting is not applicable when you scan in color mode.

Moving the Brightness slider, entering a value in the Brightness numeric text box, or clicking in the Brightness-Contrast custom control turns off Auto Brightness.

Please set the Brightness to ‘AUTO’

 

Edge Detection

Edge detection in VRS is controlled with the Contrast slider. Edge detection, or edge finding as it is sometimes called, is a technology that can recognize transitions of one gray level to another level. The larger the difference between the levels of gray, the more “edgy” the object is. With a low contrast level, only very edgy objects become black (such as black text on a white background); very faint text and lines would still not appear because the transition from a white background to light gray is relatively minor. Faint text and lines are therefore not “edgy.” A background, because it does not have transitions from one level of gray to another, would not be edgy. A gradient, because there are no sudden transitions from one level of gray to another, would not be edgy. Even something that is technically invisible to the eye, such as a piece of transparent tape placed on a document, could be detected when contrast is set high enough, since there is ultimately a transition from the tape to the paper surrounding it.

 

Manual Image Adjustment

VRS provides the option to manually adjust the settings for an image or images. You can use the Clarity panel to make the adjustments.

 

Brightness-Contrast Custom Control

The Clarity panel includes custom controls (visual markers) to assist you in identifying the optimal range for brightness and contrast.

The Brightness-Contrast custom control indicates the current value of the Brightness setting by means of a horizontal solid black line. The Brightness-Contrast custom control indicates the current value of the Contrast setting by means of a vertical solid black line. When Auto Brightness is enabled, the black lines (along with the slider) are automatically adjusted to reflect the automatic brightness adjustment.

The Brightness-Contrast custom control indicates the current acceptable range of detected brightness and detected contrast values by means of a rectangle with solid blue lines. This box shows you the region of acceptable Brightness and Contrast values. The box is centered on the 50-50 baseline settings for Brightness and Contrast, with the borders representing the Brightness and Contrast threshold values from the VirtualReScan Administration Utility dialog box. Valid VRS-detected values must fall within the blue box. VRS detected values that fall outside the blue box borders are invalid and they generate warnings.

 

Brightness Text Box

When the VRS Interactive Viewer is launched, the Brightness numeric text box on the Clarity panel indicates the current Brightness setting. If desired, the Brightness setting may be changed manually using the Brightness numeric text box. Brightness may be set from 0 (very dark) to 100 (very bright) for black and white, grayscale, or color images. Keep in mind that the manual brightness setting is not shared between black and white, grayscale, and color modes. Changing the value of the manual brightness Current brightness setting in black and white mode does not affect the value of the manual brightness setting in gray scale or color mode, because VRS keeps these values separate.

 

Contrast Text Box

When the VRS Interactive Viewer is launched, the Contrast numeric text box indicates the current value of the Contrast setting. The Contrast value of an image may be set manually using the Contrast numeric text box. The Contrast value may be set from 0 (very low contrast) to 100 (very high contrast). Similar to the Brightness setting, the Contrast setting is not shared between black and white, grayscale, and color modes.

You must enter a separate Contrast value for each mode.

 

Gamma Slider and Gamma Correct Text Box

The Gamma slider and Gamma numeric text box indicate the current value of the Gamma setting, which can range from -100 (very dark gamma) to +100 (very light gamma). Gamma may be set for black and white, gray scale, and color images, but is only shared between black and white and grayscale modes. This means that changing the value of the Gamma setting while in black and white mode also changes the Gamma setting for grayscale mode because VRS internally uses a single value to represent gamma for black and white and grayscale.

The Gamma setting is not shared between non-color and color modes. Changing the value of the Gamma setting in black and white mode does not affect the value of the Gamma setting in color as VRS uses a dedicated value to represent color gamma.

Please set the Gamma to 0. Note that you may need to adjust this setting based on the scanner on the model.

 

Using the Noise Panel

You can use the filters on the Noise panel to enhance image quality and remove excessive speckling. Also, you can use the Fill Holes option to fill in hole marks with the background color of the surrounding area.

As you adjust the Noise settings, the effects are applied to the image in the VRS Interactive Viewer window. You can fine-tune the settings until the image appearance meets your quality standards.

 

Removing Noise from a Document

Follow these general rules for removing noise from a document:

  • If you have batches of mixed documents with varying quality, never use the Speckle Removal filter. You could risk losing information on documents.
  • If the noise was produced by bleed-through of text from the back side or background patterns (such as the patterns commonly found on boarding passes), decrease the contrast from the Clarity panel. If text starts to disappear as you remove the noise, compensate by adjusting the Brightness slider to a lower setting.
  • If the noise is produced by shaded backgrounds, gradients, or dark-colored paper, increase the brightness from the Clarity panel.
  • If you have only one or two kinds of documents with consistent quality, try to apply various levels of the speckle removal filters.
  • If the filter removes part of the characters even at low levels of the speckle removal filter, apply the rules for mixed batches.

 

Filling Holes

When scanning pages with marks from notebook holes or tractor feed holes, you may prefer not to retain the hole marks in the scanned image. If you select the Fill Holes check box, VRS will automatically fill in the hole marks on the images with the background color of the surrounding area.

Note This feature is supported with scanners that produce images with a black background.

Please check the Fill Holes check box and set the Speckle Removal feature to 3 points on the scale.

 

 

To update the Noise panel settings

From the VRS Adjustment Controls, select the Noise panel.

Use the Line Filter slider to select the amount of thinning/thickening to apply to image elements.

  • Move toward Thin for image elements ballooned or blended together.
  • Move toward the Thick setting for image elements too thin or too light.

Use the Speckle Removal Filter slider to remove unwanted black dots.

  • Move the slider toward Small if removal of small dots will achieve the desired image quality.
  • Move the slider toward Medium if removal of small and medium dots will achieve the desired image quality.
  • Move the slider toward Large if removal of small, medium, and large dots will achieve the desired image quality. Moving the slider too far to the right may interfere with text recognition.

Select the Fill Holes check box to enable the feature that replaces hole marks (such as notebook paper hole marks) with the color of the area surrounding the holes.

Click OK.


Using the Skew Panel

You can use the Skew panel to select settings that control automatic deskew, auto crop and edge cleanup, as well as auto orientation, which is used to automatically rotate a page that scans in a non-standard orientation. The Skew panel also gives you options to perform manual skew adjustment on an image.

Images can be rotated up to 360 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise using the movable angle control arm, or they can be automatically deskewed if you select the Deskew check box. If necessary, you can fine-tune the rotation with the Fine Angle Adjustment slider. When the Angle box lists 0.00, the image is displayed as it was originally scanned.

 

Deskew Option

Use the Deskew option to automatically straighten any images that are skewed. You can achieve excellent results with black background or white background scanners.

 

Auto Crop and Edge Cleanup Options

Use the Auto Crop option to automatically crop every page to its original size. Auto Crop is important for a precise registration of each image in order to perform accurate optical character recognition (OCR). You can use Edge Cleanup to automatically remove black borders from an image. It is different from image cropping because it does not crop the image to its actual size. Instead, it replaces any black pixels in the border around the image with white pixels, preserving the width and length of the image size determined by the image crop.

 

Auto Orientation

You can select the Auto Orientation check box to turn on the feature that performs automatic page rotation. With this feature enabled, VRS will automatically rotate a page that is scanned in a non-standard orientation. As a result, you do not have to perform manual rotation after the image is scanned. This feature eliminates the need to pre-sort batches of documents to ensure that they are facing in the same direction.

With Auto Orientation enabled, you can place a stack of documents in the scanner feeder without checking to make sure that they are facing the same way, and VRS will automatically rotate the images at scan time, if necessary.

Note Auto Orientation may conflict with the rotation options that are available with some scanners that support advanced features. If you are using VRS with such a scanner, we recommend that you enable either Auto Orientation or the advanced rotation options, but not both.

 

To change the Skew panel settings

From the VRS Adjustment Controls, select the Skew panel.

Select the desired Deskew and Crop options.

Select Auto Orientation if you want VRS to automatically rotate a page that scans in the non-standard orientation.

If automatic deskew is not selected, you can use the movable angle control arm to straighten an image by clicking anywhere on the grid. You can also adjust the skew as follows:

  1. Position the mouse over the vertical arm, click, and hold. The cursor will change to a hand.
  2. Drag the arm counter-clockwise to rotate the image to the left, or clockwise to rotate it to the right. You can rotate the image up to 360 degrees.

If desired, use the Fine Angle Adjustment slider to fine-tune the deskew angle in single degree or  partial degree increments, as follows:

  1. Move the slider all the way to the left to complete a one-degree, counterclockwise angle adjustment.
  2. Move the slider all the way to the right, to complete a one-degree, clockwise angle adjustment.
  3. Move the slider to a position in between the leftmost or rightmost setting, to select an angle shift that is less than a full degree. Each line on the slider scale represents 0.05 degrees.

Click OK.

 

Check all the Skew options.


 

 

Profile Menu

You can use the Profile menu to create and manage VRS profiles. Each profile represents a saved combination of settings on the panels in the VRS Adjustment Controls. A profile works like a memorized strategy for image correction and enhancement. With the exception of the “Default settings” profile, which is predetermined and automatically included in your VRS installation, profiles are created by the user. VRS uses the “Default settings” profile unless you select another profile. The active profile selection is unique for each VRS user on your computer.

  • Save As

Use this command to assign a name to a new profile, and then save it. When you select “Save As,” the New Profile dialog box opens so that you can assign the profile name.

  • Save

Use this command to save modifications to the currently selected profile.

  • Organize

Use this command to open the Organize Profiles dialog box, which is used to create profiles and manage existing profiles.

 

Select Profile - Save As to open the New Profile dialog box.

  • In the New Profile text box, assign a name to the new profile. Be sure to assign a profile name with alphanumeric characters.
  • Click OK to save the profile and close the New Profile dialog box.

The new profile name will be added to the list of profiles, and it will also become the active profile.

 

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