Method and apparatus for enhanced automatic determination of text line dependent parameters

An automatic text feature determining system for determining a text feature of an unsplayed text portion of an image of a document, comprising:

• input means for inputting a digital data signal representative of the unsplayed text portion, the digital data signal comprising a plurality of signal portions, each signal portion corresponding to one of a plurality of pixels of the image;
• connected component generating means for generating a plurality of connected components from the plurality of signal portions;
• aligning means for aligning the connected components to analysis axes, the aligning means comprising,
• text orientation determining means for determining a dominant text orientation direction of the unsplayed text portion,
• axes aligning means for aligning the dominant direction of the unsplayed text portion to the analysis axes, and
• line aligning means for aligning skewed portions of the unsplayed text portion to the analysis axes;
• bounding box generating means for generating a plurality of bounding boxes, each bounding box surrounding a corresponding one of the plurality of connected components;
• and
• line spatial feature determining means for determining spatial features of each line of text of the unsplayed text portion, each line of text comprising at least one of the plurality of connected components.