| Anchor | Example |
|---|---|
| Black Square | |
| Corner |  |
| Cross |  |
| Timing Mark |
Elements of machine-readable forms
Anchor
Anchors help ABBYY FlexiCapture match scanned forms to Document Definitions and detect orientation. Standard types include squares, corners, and crosses.
An anchor is an element of a machine-readable form that is used to facilitate the matching of form images with Document Definitions and to determine the orientation of forms during automated processing.
Before ABBYY FlexiCapture can recognize the contents of a form, it must match the form with its Document Definition. All machine-readable forms of the same type must conform to one Document Definition, so the location of all form elements must be exactly the same on all forms.
ABBYY FlexiCapture matches the form with its Document Definition according to the number and location of the anchors. When it matches the anchors on the form with those on the Document Definition, it knows exactly where to look for the fields containing data to be recognized.
The following table lists the standard anchors.
For the best possible recognition results, use standard anchors on the form. In some cases, line separators, explanatory text, or barcodes can also be used as anchors. However, standard anchors are more reliable and should always be your first choice.