document imaging

Document imaging is a computing process that creates a digital representation of a document. This is typically done using a digital scanner, which divides a page into tiny picture areas called pixels and generates an array of binary digits representing the brightness of each pixel. This process is particularly useful for documents containing drawings or images that cannot be economically digitized through keyboard transcription.1

While document imaging captures the visual representation of a page, it does not inherently recognize text. For linguistic manipulation, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software is used to convert scanned characters into digital signals that can be compared to stored alphabets.1

Historically, technologies like microfilm and microfiche also served to reduce the size of documents for storage and accessibility, using photographic techniques. Fax machines, which transmit and reproduce documents over telephone lines, also rely on scanning and digitizing information, though they are primarily for transmission rather than long-term digital storage.23