1. Go to the Production or QC tool tab and locate the Auto Crop tool.
2. In the Method drop-down menu, select Loose Material for various materials (photos, documents, objects etc.) or Bound Material for bound documents (like a book). This selects the most appropriate algorithm for the subject. Note that the Fixed Size methods are covered later.
3. Click on the Straighten drop-down menu and choose the edge to best align the crop or select Average based on all four edges or if there is no straight edge. Choose None to disable the feature.
4. The Pre-Pass option helps the Crop tool to better distinguish between the subject and the background if the difference is very small. For example, if a white paper is lying on a white background, you should choose Low Object-Background Contrast or even Very Low Object-Background Contrast. If the difference between the object and the background is well-defined, None should be selected.
5. With Optimization, it is possible to have Levels adjusted automatically after the auto crop, for example, to enhance the legibility of faded text on a paper or to automatically adjust a black and white negative based on the range of tone in the image. This is done by choosing Auto Levels on Interior Crop in the drop-down menu. Note that the adjustment is based on a frame that is 10% smaller than the actual crop to avoid being influenced by a white or black frame. You should also be aware that the way the Levels are automatically adjusted depends on the settings in Preferences -> Exposure. Select None to disable this feature.
6. Insert a positive or negative - (minus) value for the margin in pixels in the Padding box. Note that a value must be present, so if no padding is required, type 0 (zero).
7. Press Auto Crop at the bottom of the dialog or select the Crop cursor from the top Tool Bar or from the Crop tool and make the selection. If the On Crop option is selected, the Auto Crop will be applied within the area that is manually cropped. This method can be very useful to help isolate objects that are otherwise difficult to recognize automatically by the Auto Crop feature.
8. If fine-tuning is required, click the Auto Crop button for the second or third time as this will attempt to trace the edges with a tighter margin. You can also adjust the crop manually by selecting the Crop cursor (if not already selected) and then click inside the crop area of the image requiring adjustment and drag it into place.
Notes:
- Applying the Undo command in the Main toolbar will cycle through previous steps. Clicking the Reset Crop button will revert to the original uncropped image.
- The Loose Material setting selects the largest object in the image.
- The Auto Crop algorithm is designed to recognize rectangular objects and may not work with other shapes. For those objects, you may use a rectangular card or paper as a frame.
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