Image Enhancement

The Image Enhancement panel lets you non-destructively adjust colour balance, exposure, sharpness, and geometry on individual scanned pages before QC is finalised. Processing is handled by a Python script, and all settings are saved per-page in the document XML so they can be reviewed and adjusted at any time.

Prerequisites

• Python must be installed and accessible on the workstation’s PATH.
• The enhancement Python script must be present in the application’s scripts directory.
• Image Enhancement must be enabled for the batch (see Enabling the Panel below).

Enabling the Panel

Image Enhancement availability is controlled at two levels:

• Admin level – an administrator enables it per-batch via Admin Setup → Batch Setup → Custom QC Setting → Allow Image Enhancement.
• Session level – with a batch open, toggle the panel using the View tab → Image Enhancement checkbox. The panel slides in on the right side of the workspace.

Panel Sections

White Balance

Select Manual to adjust the RGB tint sliders individually, or Auto to let the Python script calculate optimal colour temperature automatically.

Control	Range	Default	Effect
Red Tint	0.0 – 2.0	1.0	Multiplies the red channel
Green Tint	0.0 – 2.0	1.0	Multiplies the green channel
Blue Tint	0.0 – 2.0	1.0	Multiplies the blue channel

Levels

Control	Range	Default	Effect
Gamma	0.1 – 3.0	1.0	Mid-tone brightness. Values < 1 darken; > 1 brighten.
In Black	0 – 255	0	Shadows input level — pixels below this are clipped to black.
In White	0 – 255	255	Highlights input level — pixels above this are clipped to white.

Color

• Saturation (0.0 – 2.0, default 1.0) – values below 1.0 de-saturate towards greyscale; above 1.0 intensify colours.

Sharpening

Control	Range	Default	Effect
Amount	0.0 – 5.0	0.0	Strength of the unsharp mask. 0 = no sharpening.
Radius	0.0 – 10.0	0.0	Radius of the blur kernel used for edge detection.

Output

• Clip (0.0 – 1.0, default 1.0) – proportion of the output histogram to preserve. Reducing below 1.0 compresses the tonal range slightly.

Page Operations

• Split Pages (Left/Right) – automatically splits a two-page book spread into two individual pages. Useful when a flatbed scanner captures facing pages together.
• Auto Crop (Background Removal) – detects and removes the background border around the document content, producing a tighter image.

Page Rotation

Use the quick-select buttons to apply a fixed rotation, or drag the slider for a custom angle:

• 0° – no rotation (original orientation).
• 90° – rotate 90° clockwise.
• 180° – flip upside down.
• 270° – rotate 90° counter-clockwise.

Manual Crop

1. Tick Enable Manual Crop in the panel.
2. Click Crop Mode in the toolbar (or press Escape to cancel crop mode at any time).
3. Draw a rectangle on the image preview by clicking and dragging.
4. The X, Y, Width, and Height fields fill automatically.
5. Adjust the values manually if precise pixel coordinates are needed.
6. Click Clear Crop to remove the selection.

Applying and Resetting

• Apply – sends the current settings to the Python enhancement engine. The processed image replaces the displayed image. The status bar shows Enhancement applied successfully on completion.
• Reset – returns all sliders and checkboxes to their default values (no processing is triggered).
• Close – hides the panel. Settings are not lost; they reload when the panel is re-opened for the same page.

Per-Page Settings

Enhancement settings are stored in the document XML file alongside each page record. When you navigate to a different page and return, the panel automatically reloads that page’s saved settings. Settings persist across suspend/resume cycles.

Status Messages

• Processing… – the Python script is running.
• Enhancement applied successfully – the output file was created and loaded into the viewer.
• Error: <detail> – Python script failed; check that Python is installed and the script path is correct. Details are written to the application log (DVER0501 / DVER0502).
• Crop cancelled – Escape was pressed while in crop mode.