Designing a Scannable Form

A scannable form is one which has been designed and scanned in the correct way, so that the image can be read by the OMR form processor.

As you design your form template, make sure no black text or dark lines are touching the barcodes, checkboxes, OMR ID grid or Barcode Area.

FormReturn OMR relies on the detection of the Form ID Barcode before it can recognize the form page and the detection of the segment barcodes and the mark areas, before it can capture the marks made by respondents.

A quality document scanner with a good automatic document feeder, will decrease the risk of badly scanned form images, and make your captured response data more accurate.

Leaving the default margin around the edge of the form page, will ensure any of the components that must be detected by the OMR form processor, won't be obscured from the page if a form image is skewed.

A poor quality scanner can cause more black or white to show up on the form image, which could cause errors with detection of the barcodes or processing of the response marks in the checkboxes.

If the respondents used pencil or light colored pen to mark the checkboxes, this can cause errors in detection of marks. The luminance and mark threshold settings in FormReturn can be increased to overcome this.

To overcome the risk of low quality form images causing errors in detection, increasing the resolution or the contrast on the scanner's settings could make a big difference. Sometimes it can be a game of cat and mouse to get the scanner's settings correct so that quality images can be produced.

Recognition Preview is used to detect the segment, barcodes and mark areas add to the form template, as you go and when you are finished. There should be no errors in detection of these components. Make sure there are no heavy lines or text interfering with the detection of the segment border, the barcodes or the checkbox mark areas, ID grids or Barcode areas, which are all used in recognition by the form processor.

Test Preview the Form Template
Form ID Barcodes
Segment Barcodes
Fragments

Test Preview the Form Template Layout

Because all scanners are different, a test preview of the form template using a scanned image from your scanner, tests your scanner's ability to create quality scanned images. The test preview will pre-determine how the handmarks made in checkboxes will be detected by the FormReturn. If there are errors in the detection of the hand-marks, you can change the Recognition Settings of FormReturn or your scanner's resolution and contrast settings and try the test preview again until everything on the form is detected accurately.

A screenshot of a form Recognition Preview. The Barcodes, the segment, the fragments and any marks are shown as detected. The OMR ID Grid is also a fragment and should be detected in the Recognition Preview.

Form ID Barcodes

When a barcode is added, care should be taken so as to not squash the barcode, which makes it smaller. A smaller than default size barcode could cause a defect in its detection by FormReturn's processor.

When adding the Form ID Barcode, make sure is has plenty of room for expansion.

Keep the Form ID Barcode clear of all other elements added to the form, to allow for good detection and recognition of the barcode.

Adding Barcodes

Segment Barcodes

Make sure the segment barcodes are kept clear of any checkboxes you add to the segment as well as any text, lines or borders.

A screenshot of the top segment barcode detected in the Recognition Preview. If one barcode can't be detected, neither of them will show as detected.

Fragments

When you add fragments to the segment, which include checkbox areas, ID Grid Area or a Barcode Area, look at them in the Recognition Preview to make sure they are detected before you publish your form template.

A screenshot of the Recognition Preview of the segment with the fragments and the OMR ID Grid detected. If there is a defect in the detection of any of the fragments, none of them will show as detected in the Recognition Preview.