Continue Scanning

To turn this feature on, from Main User Interface use the Menu to select Tools > Options, navigate to the Preferences tab, and enable the Prompt to continue scanning when feeder is empty option.

When running any scan (import) command, LAW will conclude the import process once the scanner's feeder runs empty by default. This can be problematic when scanning large batches of physical pages that cannot all fit into the feeder at once. In these instances, you can instead have LAW prompt you with the Continue Scanning window (shown) to load more physical pages into the scanner once the feeder is empty, in order to continue running the same scan command.

Scan Area

To open the Scan Area window, from the Menu portion of the Main User Interface select Scan > Scanner Settings..., and then click the Area... button in the bottom-right of the Scanner Settings window.

Establishing a custom scan area may be necessary when using scanners that can cause uneven black borders to appear around scanned images. These borders typically cannot be adequately removed by the Black Border Removal scan filter. If you open this window to re-adjust the scan area immediately after a bad scan, you can click+drag within the preview area (shown) to create a box around the desired image and automatically fill in the appropriate offsets and measurements.

•Units - Select between Inches, Millimeters, or Pixels from this drop-down menu.

•X/Y Offset - Determines the starting X/Y coordinates for the scan area.

•Width/Length - Determines the Width and Length of the scan area.

Scan Options Sub-Menu

To view the Scan Options sub-menu, from the Main User Interface use the Menu to select Scan > Scan Options. Alternatively, you can right-click on the Scanner Status Bar in the bottom-right corner of the Main User Interface:

From here, you have a variety of commonly used scanner options available for quick and easy configuration on the fly, without needing to have the Scan Toolbar open. This is helpful when scanning large amounts of physical documents that may each require slightly different configurations in order to import properly.

Page Sizes

The following options determine the size of pages being scanned. Most modern scanners will correctly determine sizing automatically.

The available sizes are A4, Letter (F7), Legal (F8), and Double Letter (F9).

Scan Mode

The following options determine how and where pages will be scanned:

•Simplex - Only one side of each page is scanned from the feeder.

•Duplex - Both sides of each page are scanned from the feeder.

•Flatbed - Scans pages from the glass flatbed. Defaults to Simplex and scans only a single page from the feeder if page if no pages are available in the flatbed.

Filters/Other

The following options provide image manipulations (Scan Filters) that can automatically be applied to document pages during the scanning process, and additional supplemental settings for more uncommon scanning needs.

•Auto-Deskew - Straightens images as they're scanned if they appear crooked or misaligned. (see Page-level Cleanup).

•Black-Border Removal - Removes black edges from the borders of scanned images. These borders are often the result of the scanner model being used, and will prevent LAW from recognizing blank pages. If these borders are uneven, then they will not be removed automatically, and you may need to adjust the Scan Area in order to correct the issue.

•Detect Barcode Breaks - Allows scanning of multiple documents with varying page amounts at once by inserting Break Sheets (Slip Sheets) that contain barcodes between separate documents. These barcodes can indicate either the start of a new document, or a new folder to be created.
These images can be opened with any image viewer and printed if users need to prepare a scan job with break sheets. Light-colored paper is recommended when printing barcode sheets (e.g., white, light blue, light yellow, or light green). LAW relies on the contrast between the bars in the barcode and the background color of the paper for detecting the barcode value. Scanner brightness or contrast (Scan > Scanner Settings) may require adjustment if LAW is having a difficult time recognizing the barcodes. See Barcode Break Sheets for more information about barcodes.

•Drop Blank Pages - Images containing very small pixel ratios (as is typically the case with blank pages of any color) are automatically removed as they're scanned. This is useful when scanning documents containing both double-sided pages and single-sided pages.

•Hole Removal - Removes visible holes from the images of hole-punched pages. Only standard-sized holes (1/4" - 5/16") are supported.

•Invert Pages - Select Odd or Even from this menu to automatically rotate select pages 180º while scanned. This is helpful when scanning double-sided pages that have opposite orientations on the front and back sides.

•Noise Removal (Despeck) - Reduces the amount of dots/specks that can appear randomly on poorly scanned images. This noise often reduces the accuracy of OCR.

•OCR All New Pages - Automatically flags every scanned page for OCR. Does not perform OCR - this will need to be done separately after scanning has completed. See the Flagging Documents/Pages for OCR section for information on flagging pages after they have been scanned.

•Scan Page Limit (Current)... - Opens the Set Scan Page Limit window, allowing you to set a limit on the number of physical pages (front and back) comprising each document while scanning. Useful when scanning large numbers of checks, note cards, business cards, etc. without the need for Break Sheets or individually scanning documents one at a time. Note that for double sided pages, both sides of the page are treated as a single page with this setting. The Current limit is displayed in parenthesis.

•Single Pages - Overrides the Scan Page Limit and sets it to 1. All pages being scanned are treated as separate one-page documents.

•Scan Rotation - The Scan Rotation setting can be used to rotate pages as they are scanned. Images can be rotated 90, 180, or 270 degrees. Scanning documents in landscape mode may increase the scanner throughput and help prevent paper jams. If using this feature to scan landscape, the scanner must support double-letter page size in order to capture the full height of the document.

•Turnover Mode - Used to scan double-sided pages in the flatbed without using a duplex scanner. LAW will prompt users to flip pages during the scanning process, and will rebuild documents in their correct page order afterward. This setting will disable the Detect Barcode Breaks filter.

•Configure Filters... - This button opens the Configure Scan Filters window.

See the Scan Filters topic for more information on the Configure Scan Filters window.

Scanner Settings

To open the Scanner Settings window, from the Main User Interface use the Menu to select Scan > Scanner Settings....

Most of these settings are more conveniently located within the Scan Toolbar, and determine how physical document pages are to be handled by the scanner. Only the Dither and Region options are unique to this window. The availability of some options depends on the scanner model connected to LAW, and the Mode selected.

•Mode - Determines how colors on scanned pages are handled:

oBlack and White - Converts all colors into black or white.

o256-Level Gray - Converts all colors into one of 256 different shades of gray.

o24-Bit Color - Retains all colors as accurately as possible within a 24-bit color range.

•Dither - Applies randomized noise (pixels) to pages images in order to reduce the emergence of visual patterning, such as color banding. This is unnecessary for most modern scanner models.

•Dots per inch - Determines the image quality of scanned pages. Higher DPI (dots per inch) values increase both quality and scan time.

•Page Size - Determines the size of the pages being scanned. Most modern scanners will correctly determine sizing automatically.

•Region - Determines which side of each physical page should be scanned. The actual orientation of these pages depends on the scanner model connected to LAW.

•Brightness - Determines the overall lightness or darkness of page images. Higher values are lighter, lower values are darker. Depending on the scanner model connected to LAW, you may be able to set this to Automatic or Manual adjustment. While on Manual adjustment, the following toggle buttons also become available:

oDarken - Sets the Brightness to 106.

oNormal - Sets the Brightness to the default of 128.

oLighten - Sets the Brightness to 150.

•Contrast - Determines the difference between max lightness and darkness of the images. Higher values increase this difference, lower values decrease it. Depending on the scanner model connected to LAW, you may be able to set this to Automatic or Manual adjustment.

•Default - This button restores all Scanner Settings within this window to their default values.

•Area... - This button opens the Scan Area window.

•More... - This button will open the scanner-specific settings interface provided by the manufacturer.

Imaging

To view Imaging options, from the Menu portion of the Main User Interface select Tools > Options..., and then navigate to the Imaging tab.

The Scanner Output settings found here are more conveniently located within the Scan Toolbar. Additionally, some very useful Barcode Breaks settings can be found here as well.

Scanner Output:

•Color Format - Shown for display purposes only. Can only be changed within the Scan Toolbar (Scanner Settings tab) or the separate Scanner Settings window.

•File Type - Determines the file format that each scanned document is saved as. Available formats depend on the Color Format selected. TIFF is considered the industry standard. If PDF is desired, it is still recommended to scan as TIFF first and then later export as PDF in order to have all LAW features available to the scanned documents during processing.

•Compression - Determines the compression scheme being used for the selected File Type. This helps to save storage space.

•Storage Schema - Determines how and where scanned documents consisting of multiple pages are stored:

oSerialized - Each page of a document is stored as a separate image file within the case's $Image Archive folder (located within the root folder).

oMultipage - All pages of a document are stored as a single image file within the selected Case Directory folder.

Barcode Breaks:

•Folder - Barcodes matching this value indicate the start of a new folder. LAW will increment the current folder name and check for an existing folder with that name, or will create that folder automatically if it does not yet exist. Pages scanned after this break value are treated as a new document to be placed within that folder.

•Doc - Barcodes matching this value indicate the start of a new document. Multiple values can be entered, and should be separated with semi-colons.

•Attach - Barcodes matching this value indicate the start of a new attachment to the most recently scanned document (non-attachment). Multiple attachments for the same document can be scanned at once, as long as each individual attachment is preceded by this break value.

•Ignore - Barcodes matching the value(s) entered here are ignored. Multiple values can be entered, and should be separated with semi-colons.

•Dilate scan region - Widens the area being scanned for barcodes. This can help with barcode detection when lines are visibly missing or squished due to poor print quality.

•Scan entire page - Every page will be fully scanned for barcodes. This can drastically increase overall scan time, but is necessary when using barcodes that are in different positions on each page.

•Use thorough scan - Increases the resolution (DPI) of the barcode scanning area in order to improve recognition. This can drastically increase overall scan time, but may be necessary when using smaller barcodes.

Batch Scanning With Barcode Break Sheets