Quality check

A poor scan costs time later: OCR misreads, fields stay empty and operators have to guess. The Quality check (QC) step lets someone look at the images before recognition starts. Good images move on. Poor ones go back to Scan with a reason, so the scan operator knows exactly what to rescan.

QC is optional. It only runs when a Batch Setup's workflow includes a Quality check step.

Automatic image check

Add an Image check step before the Quality check step, and DocView Capture checks every page for you before OCR and extraction. With an Image enhancement step before it, the check judges the enhanced pages, so a faint scan made black and white is not flagged as too light. It finds pages that are:

It also finds the paper and feeding problems an operator would otherwise look for:

Folded corners, dark borders and punch holes show only when the scanner's background is dark (black backing), which most production scanners use. With a white backing they cannot be seen on the image.

Each check can be switched on or off, and its limit tuned, on the Image check step of the Workflow tab: the checks are grouped as Image quality, Position and size and Paper and feeding, each with a short explanation, All on / All off per group and Reset to defaults. Save image check settings at the bottom saves them; until then the panel says there are unsaved changes.

Try with a file under the settings runs them, as they are on screen and before you save, on the first 10 pages of a PDF, TIFF or image (up to 25 MB): each page is shown with what was measured — sharpness, brightness, skew, resolution, size, paper and specks — and the problems it would be flagged for. Use it with a few good and a few bad scans from your own scanner to tune the limits.

Pages with a problem are flagged for Quality check, with the reason, for example Automatic check: Skewed (4.5°); Folded or torn corner (top right). The sampling setting of the QC step does not apply; the flagged pages are the ones to check. Tick Skip when nothing to do on the Quality check step and batches where every page passed go straight on without waiting for an operator.

Pages an operator has already decided on are not flagged again. A page that was rescanned and now passes is no longer flagged.

What gets checked

The administrator decides, per QC step:

So a QC step might check every page, or a 10% sample of documents. The left panel of the QC screen shows the rule in use, for example Checking every page, Checking 10% of documents or Checking the pages the automatic image check flagged.

With Every page, the operator sees the whole batch — so nothing seems to be missing — and can still fail a page that was not flagged or not in the sample. With Only the pages to check, the other pages are hidden.

Open a batch for quality check

1. Click Quality check in the left-hand menu. You see a card for each QC step, with the number of batches waiting.
2. Click Get next batch, or click a batch name in the list.

Get next batch picks the next batch in a sensible order: your own unfinished batches first, then by priority, then the oldest.

Note: You need the quality check permission to see this menu entry. If the step has a four-eyes rule, you cannot open a batch you worked on in the step it names; Get next batch skips it. See Workflow.

The QC screen

• Left: the pages or documents, each with its thumbnails and a state icon. A yellow triangle (and a yellow band) means still to check, a green tick means good, a red cross (and a red band) means failed, and a grey dash means not flagged — not in the sample, or passed by the automatic image check. Thumbnails have a yellow, red or green outline in the same way. The buttons above the list show only All, To check, Failed or Good items, each with its count.

The screen opens on the first item to check. Next to check (F8) and Next failed (F9) jump straight to the next flagged or failed item; with Shift they go back.

• Centre: the large image, one page at a time, with zoom, Fit width, Fit page, rotate view and Open in its own window (to move the page to another screen). Double-click the page to fit it in the viewer.
• Right: the decision panel, asking Is the image readable, complete, straight and correctly exposed?

The ribbon status shows Item N of M, how many are still to check and how many failed.

Table view (ribbon, View group) shows every item as a row: its pages, the result, the note, and a tick (good) and cross (fail) for each one. Click a row to show its page. Form view goes back to the list. Your choice is remembered on this PC.

Check each item

1. Look at the image. Use the arrow keys to move between pages of a multipage item.
2. If it is fine, click Image is good or press Enter. The next item to check opens.
3. If it is not, click Fail – rescan or press F. Then:
   1. Pick a reason: Blurred, Skewed, Too dark, Too light, Cut off, Page missing or Wrong side, or type your own under What is wrong?
   2. Click Fail (or press Enter).

Your reason is shown to the scan operator, so be specific.

Replace pages without leaving QC

You can fix a poor page yourself instead of sending the batch back to Scan. Select the item, then use the Replace pages group of the ribbon:

• Rescan scans the item again with the batch's own scan settings.
• Colour – one page, Colour – all pages and Flatbed change that one scan only. Colour – all pages scans until the feeder is empty. Afterwards the batch's own settings apply again.
• Replace from file takes the new pages from image or PDF files.

The new pages take the old pages' place and are checked again.

Virtual page inserts a notice (such as Poor quality original) or an uploaded image before or after the selected page, for a page that cannot be made better. See Virtual pages.

Rescanning needs the DocView Scan Agent on your PC, as in Scan documents.

Tip: When the whole batch looks fine, All good marks every item still to check as good in one go, after you confirm.

Keyboard shortcuts

Finish the quality check

The Close button turns into the finish button when every item has a decision. It changes with the result:

• Release batch: every item passed. The batch moves to the next step.
• Send back to Scan: at least one item failed. After you confirm, the batch returns to Scan with the failed pages flagged.

When you decide the last item, DocView Capture asks whether to release the batch (or send it back), then opens the next batch waiting for QC.

What happens to failed pages

In Scan, the batch shows Returned from quality check and each failed page carries your reason. The scan operator rescans those pages and releases the batch again. It then comes back to QC, marked Re-check after rescanning, so the new pages are checked too. See Scan documents.

Other batch actions

The ribbon is laid out as on Scan: the Home tab has the commands of this step and, at the end, the Batch group (Batch ▾, Suspend, Close / Release); the View tab has the page (fit, zoom, turn, invert, own window) and the layout. The quick access buttons above the tabs stay visible when the ribbon is collapsed (Ctrl+F1), and end with Close and Suspend. To put the batch back as it was when you opened it, choose Discard changes and close in the Close prompt. Right-click a page thumbnail (or press the menu key) for the page commands of this step. Next batch: on / off in the Batch group is your own switch, the same in every module: when it is on, Close, Suspend and Release open the next waiting batch of the module straight away (not the batch you just closed); when it is off, they take you back to the module's list of batches.

When the last item gets its decision, the Close prompt opens by itself. The prompt lists everything not finished or not saved yet — for example a failure reason you are still writing, or the items still to check. When every item has a decision, it offers Release batch (or Send back to Scan), Keep for later or Stay.

If you leave the batch another way, for example through the menu, nothing is asked: your work is already saved, the batch goes back to the queue for later, and a notification says so.

Important: You can have Quality check open in one window only. Opening it in another window or on another PC continues there at once, without asking; the first window stops and shows a bar with Use this window to take it back.

If no pages were selected for QC in a batch, the screen says so. Release the batch to move on.

Related pages

• Scan documents
• Workflow
• Batch Manager
• Image cleanup and separation