Blob Removal

Can be one of the following values:

The 'Connectivity' property determines how pixels are considered "connected" when grouping them into blobs.

• Choose between 4-way or 8-way connectivity, depending on whether diagonal connections should be included.
• 4-way connectivity considers only horizontal and vertical neighbors, while 8-way includes diagonals.
• The choice affects which regions are grouped as blobs and can impact the size and shape of detected blobs.

Example

Use 8-way connectivity to group diagonally touching pixels into a single blob, which is useful for removing specks or irregular shapes.

The 'Region Of Interest' property allows you to limit blob removal to a defined area of the image.

• Only blobs whose bounding rectangles fall within this region will be considered for removal.
• Leave this property empty to process the entire image.
• Use the zone editor to visually define the region in the UI.

Example

To remove blobs only from the top margin of a page, set the region to cover that area.

The 'Include Contents' property controls whether child blobs fully enclosed by a matching parent blob are also removed.

• Enable this property to remove composite features or nested artifacts, such as specks inside a logo or line.
• If disabled, only the parent blob matching the criteria will be removed, and any contained blobs will be preserved.

Example

Enable this property to remove all specks inside a large unwanted logo or stamp.

The 'Exclude Text Segments' property helps preserve text and punctuation that might otherwise match removal criteria.

• When enabled, blobs that are likely to be part of text (based on segment detection) are excluded from removal.
• Recommended when processing document images containing text to avoid accidental data loss.

Example

Enable this property to prevent removal of periods, commas, or other small text elements that may match size or area filters.

Can be one of the following types:

The 'Dropout Method' property determines the technique used to remove or replace regions of the image identified by the feature mask. This allows you to control the visual result of the dropout operation, depending on your processing goals.

Common dropout methods include:

• Filling masked regions with a solid color (such as white or the detected background color).
• Replacing masked regions with interpolated content from surrounding pixels.
• Applying custom fill logic as defined by the selected Dropout Method.

Choosing the appropriate dropout method is important for maintaining the readability and appearance of the processed image. For example, filling with white may be suitable for removing background noise, while interpolation may be preferred when removing lines or halftones from text regions.

Example: To remove halftone patterns and fill the resulting regions with the detected background color, select the 'Background Fill' option from the 'Dropout Method' dropdown.

Review the diagnostic images generated in diagnostic mode to verify that the selected method produces the desired effect on your sample images.

The 'Width' property allows you to target blobs by their horizontal size.

• Set minimum and/or maximum width to remove blobs within a specific range.
• Leave empty to allow any width.
• Specify values in units such as px, mm, or in.

Example

To remove only narrow vertical lines, set a maximum width (e.g., < 2px).

The 'Height' property allows you to target blobs by their vertical size.

• Set minimum and/or maximum height to remove blobs within a specific range.
• Leave empty to allow any height.
• Specify values in units such as px, mm, or in.

Example

To remove only short specks, set a maximum height (e.g., < 2px).

The 'Area' property allows you to target blobs by their total pixel area.

• Set minimum and/or maximum area to remove blobs within a specific range.
• Leave empty to allow any area.
• Specify values in units such as px^2, mm^2, or in^2.

Example

To remove only small specks, set a maximum area (e.g., < 10px^2).

The 'Weight' property targets blobs by the total number of pixels they contain.

• Set minimum and/or maximum weight to remove blobs within a specific range.
• Leave empty to allow any weight.
• When 'Include Contents' is enabled, weight is calculated for the blob set (parent and all contained blobs).

Example

To remove only large solid blobs, set a minimum weight (e.g., > 100px).

The 'Minimum Fill' property sets the lowest fill ratio (black pixels to bounding rectangle area) for blobs to be removed.

• Use this to exclude hollow or sparse blobs from removal.
• Range: 0 (no minimum) to 1 (completely filled).

Example

To remove only solid blobs, set a higher minimum fill (e.g., 0.8).

The 'Maximum Fill' property sets the highest fill ratio (black pixels to bounding rectangle area) for blobs to be removed.

• Use this to exclude solid or dense blobs from removal.
• Range: 0.01 (almost empty) to 1 (completely filled).

Example

To remove only hollow blobs, set a lower maximum fill (e.g., 0.2).

The 'Binarization Settings' property determines the thresholding method and parameters used to create the binarized image that serves as the basis for feature detection in Binary Dropout commands.

Binarization is a critical preprocessing step: it transforms the input image into an 8-bit black and white version, making features such as barcodes, halftones, or lines more distinct and easier to detect.

Configuration Guidance

• Select the thresholding method using the 'Method' property within 'Binarization Settings'.
• Adjust additional parameters such as threshold value, window size, kernel type, and adjustment as needed for your document type.
• For most standard documents, 'Auto' or 'Adaptive' methods provide the best results.
• For documents with variable backgrounds or lighting, use 'Adaptive' or 'Dynamic' and tune the window size and kernel type.

Notes

• The quality of the binarized image directly affects the accuracy of feature detection and dropout.
• Review the diagnostic output to ensure that the features you wish to remove are clearly visible in the binarized image.

The 'Command Type Name' property shows the user-friendly name of the IP Command as it appears in the Grooper UI. This helps users identify which command is being configured or executed, especially when working with IP Profiles containing multiple commands.

This property is read-only and is automatically set based on the command's type.

The 'Supported Pixel Formats' property lists the image pixel formats that the IP Command can process. If an image does not match one of these formats, the command will be skipped for that image.

• By default, all pixel formats are supported unless a derived command restricts this list.
• Example formats include Pixel8bppGrayscale, Pixel24bppBgr, and Pixel1bppIndexed.

Use this property to verify compatibility when building IP Profiles or troubleshooting why a command did not execute.