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Dropout forms have a light color background, with white rectangles serving as character cells, checkmark fields, and similar elements.

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How dropout forms work

Gray dropout forms, whose background is gray, are one example. Color dropout forms have only their element borders colored. A character cell is a small rectangle into which only one character should be entered, such as a letter or a digit. The background color is very important because it must disappear during scanning, so it is usually light red-orange or green. For the list of recommended colors, see Recommended colors for dropout forms.
Ideally, all form elements except the anchors disappear during scanning, leaving only the field contents to be recognized on the form image.

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Explanatory text

Explanatory text can be either retained (if printed in black) or filtered out together with the background. For explanatory text to disappear during scanning, print it in the same color as the form’s background but with greater saturation. When deciding whether to print explanatory text in black or in the background color, take the following into account:
  • The image file is bigger if the explanatory text is retained.
  • There should be at least 1.5-2 mm of space between explanatory text printed in black and other elements on the form. The gap between the explanatory text and the corresponding checkmark field must not be less than 2/3 of the size of the checkmark field. If the explanatory text is printed in the background color, spaces between the text and other form elements are not so crucial.
Forms with explanatory text printed in black are more legible. Print explanatory text in black, especially if there are no anchors on the form.
When creating a Document Definition for a form with explanatory text printed in the background color, scan the form in color or in grayscale mode to make the explanatory text and elements on the form clearly visible.

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Scan a dropout form

Dropout forms must be scanned using a color lamp or filter. The color of the lamp is selected depending on the color of the background. Scan forms with red or green backgrounds in one of the following ways:
  • Color scanner, using color filtering software
  • Non-color scanner, using a red or green lamp (hardware color filtering)
  • Non-color scanner, using a white lamp and a red or green filter (filtering quality is much lower in this case, because the background may not disappear completely, or field contents may be inadvertently removed)
  • Non-color scanner, using a white lamp without any filters
When scanning with a white lamp, some lighter backgrounds can be removed without filtering, because the weak saturation of the background ensures its disappearance during scanning. In this case, select the color and saturation of the background by trial and error for each particular scanner.
Many color scanners also have software filtering used to filter out blue colors. However, avoid using shades of blue on your forms, because forms are likely to be completed using not only black but also blue ink. Field contents written in blue ink will disappear.

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Choose the right color

Red-orange colors are preferable to green because they represent the greatest possible contrast to blue, which results in better scanning and recognition quality if the forms are completed using blue ink. The recommended colors for dropout forms are those most likely to disappear during scanning with almost any scanner. You can also obtain a dropout color list for a particular scanner (in Pantone or another format) from your scanner manufacturer or dealer.