Conversion of mechanical markings on a hardcopy document into machine-encoded annotations

A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions encoded thereon that when executed by one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to perform a process comprising:

• identifying at least one block of text in a digital image of a hardcopy document;
• storing machine-encoded text, representing the at least one block of text, in a text block vector representing one line of text in the digital image of the hardcopy document;
• identifying a type of at least one mechanical marking in the digital image of the hardcopy document, in which the at least one mechanical marking covers or lies adjacent to the at least one block of text;
• generating a machine-encoded annotated digital document file from the text block vector, the annotated digital document file being different from the digital image of the hardcopy document;
• and
• modifying the text block vector in the annotated digital document file by marking the text block vector as the type of the at least one mechanical marking identified in the digital image of the hardcopy document, wherein the annotated digital document file includes the text block vector marked with computer-executable instructions representing at least one annotation corresponding to the at least one mechanical marking.

A system for converting mechanical markings on hardcopy textual content to digital annotations in a digital document file, the system comprising:

• a storage;
• and
• a processor operatively coupled to the storage, the processor configured to execute instructions stored in the storage that when executed cause the processor to carry out a process including
• identifying at least one block of text in a digital image of a hardcopy document
• storing machine-encoded text, representing at least one line of text in a digital image of a hardcopy document, in a text block vector;
• identifying a type of at least one mechanical marking in the digital image of the hardcopy document, in which the at least one mechanical marking covers or lies adjacent to the at least one block of text;
• generating a machine-encoded annotated digital document file from text block vector, the annotated digital document file being different from the digital image of the hardcopy document;
• and
• modifying the text block vector in the annotated digital document file by marking the text block vector as the type of the at least one mechanical marking identified in the digital image of the hardcopy document, wherein the annotated digital document file includes the text block vector marked with computer-executable instructions representing at least one annotation corresponding to the at least one mechanical marking.