Pixelnetica Document Scanning SDK* (DSSDK) provides developers with an intelligent, highly efficient toolkit, which offers an easy way to add image processing features that are optimized for document photos that are taken by a mobile device or document camera to their applications.
Designed to ensure the smooth operation of a paperless work-flow by pre-processing paper document images, SDK makes them easier to handle by text recognition (or optical character recognition - OCR) programs, enhancing the visual quality and legibility of documents.
For more information about DSSDK main Features and Benefits please visit Pixelnetica website.
*Former Document Imaging SDK

Please feel free to contact us for Free DSSDK Trial, Quotation or in case of any questions.

Prerequisites

Supported Android versions

  • Goggle Android 4.1 (API Level 16) and higher.

Demo Application

To demonstrate most of Document Scanning SDK features and the way how they should be used in real application we prepared demo application available in source codes available by the link below.

⚠️ Important Note.
Demo application source code provided “as is” without warranties of any kind. It could be freely used in commercial product only in case of commercial DSSDK license purchase.

Getting started

Installation

The Document Scanning SDK is provided as NuGet packages for Xamarin Platform.
To install DSSDK in Visual Studio IDE:

  1. Open your App-Solution in Visual Studio.
  2. Select your Android project and click on the menu item Project => Add NuGet Packages.
  3. Set nuget.org as source and search for package ID: Pixelnetica.ImageSdk.
  4. Click on Add Package to download and install the DSSDK into your project.

After following the steps above Document Scanning SDK will be ready to use in your code.

Namespaces

The NuGet packages for Android contain Native SDKs and corresponding Wrappers. The native SDKs and the wrappers are stored in different namespaces which are explained below.

Native SDKs for Android are provided as Xamarin Bindings Libraries and can be found in the following namespaces: Com.Pixelnetica.Docimageproc and Com.Pixelnetica.Imagesdk.

Documentation for native DSSDKs classes can be found inside Android Document Scanning SDK documentation .

We recommend to use Xamarin Wrapper namespace ImageSdkWrapper.

Permissions and Setup

Make sure to add these permissions in your AndroidManifest.xml file:

  • <uses-feature android:glEsVersion="0x00020000" android:required="true" />

  • android:largeHeap and android:hardwareAccelerated="true" in <application> tag:
    <application android:label="@string/ApplicationName" android:icon="@drawable/Icon" android:largeHeap="true" android:hardwareAccelerated="true">

  • To use ImageWriter object:
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

  • To use ImageFileWriter object:
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

Initialize SDK

The DSSDK must be initialized before usage. Make sure to run the initialization only once per application lifetime.

You can store license key file in application’s Assets folder, e.g. src/main/assets/pixelnetica/scanning/(file) Where (file) is provided by Pixelnetica and can be named as one of following:

  • Application package Id with .key suffix, e.g. Pixelnetica.SdkDemo.key
  • Application package Id, e.g. Pixelnetica.SdkDemo
  • license.key
  • license
  • key

Add the following code to your Application class:

public class MainApplication : Application
{    
    public override void OnCreate()
    {
        ImageSdkLibrary.Load(this);

    }

}

⚠️ Important Note.
Document Scanning SDK trial version comes with Trial License Key bound to demo application.
It could also be utilised in other applications for development and testing purpose only where it will generate final images (documents) with watermarks.

It is strictly prohibited to distribute, market, publish to application stores like, but not limited, AppStore, Google Play, etc or use other than for development or staging purposes Pixelnetica Document Scanning SDK trial license.

ImageSdk Modules

Processing

Processing module provides document detection, correction and binarization.

All methods of this module (including creation) must be called in one thread.

Module creation

ImageProcessing sdk = new ImageSdkLibrary().NewProcessingInstance();

Define support image size and scale image if need

Bitmap sourceBitmap = ...; // obtain source bitmap
Point sourceSize = new Point(sourceBitmap.Width, sourceBitmap.Height);
Point supportSize = sdk.SupportImageSize(sourceSize);
Bitmap supportBitmap;
if (sourceSize.Equals(supportSize))
{
    // Do not scale
    supportBitmap = sourceBitmap;
}
else
{
    supportBitmap = Bitmap.CreateScaledBitmap(sourceBitmap, supportSize.X, supportSize.Y, true);
}

Load image metadata using MetaImage object

Most convenient method to load metadata is by using ContentResolver and image Uri

ContentResolver cr = ...; // obtain Android’s ContentResolver
Uri imageUri = ... // basic Uri
MetaImage sourceImage = new MetaImage(supportBitmap, cr, imageUri);

There are a lot of different methods to create MetaImage.

Document detection

Bundle args = new Bundle();
Corners corners = sdk.DetectDocumentCorners(originImage, args);
if (args.GetBoolean(ImageSdkLibrary.SdkIsSmartCrop))
{
    // Document corners are detected
}
else
{
   // Uncertain or bad detection.
   // Corners can be null
}

After this you can let user to accept or modify document detection results.

Document cropping and correction

MetaImage croppedImage = sdk.CorrectDocument(sourceImage, corners);

Image processing and binarization

There are 4 available methods for image processing and binarization

  • Binarize to Black and White image.
    targetImage = sdk.ImageBWBinarization(croppedImage);

  • Convert to Grayscale image.
    targetImage = sdk.ImageGrayBinarization(croppedImage);

  • Enhance image Colors.
    targetImage = sdk.ImageColorBinarization(croppedImage);

  • Only rotate image to the right document orientation leaving Original colors untouched.
    targetImage = sdk.ImageOriginal(croppedImage);

Termination

All work with ImageProcessing module must be terminated by calling sdk.Destoy() or sdk.Close().

We recommend using statement.

using (ImageProcessing sdk = new ImageSdkLibrary().NewProcessingInstance())
{
...
}

ImageWriter module

Module creation

We recommend utilize using statement to automatically free and destroy writer instance.

using (ImageWriter writer = new ImageSdkLibrary().NewImageWriterInstance(ImageSdkLibrary.ImageWriterPdf))
{
...
}

You can specify a several writer types

  • ImageSdkLibrary.ImageWriterJpeg to write color JPEG image.

  • ImageSdkLibrary.ImageWriterPng to write color PNG image.

  • ImageSdkLibrary.ImageWriterWebM to write WebM image.

  • ImageSdkLibrary.ImageWriterPngExt to write 1-bit black-and-white PNG image.

  • ImageSdkLibrary.ImageWriterPdf to write a PDF document.

  • ImageSdkLibrary.ImageWriterTiff to write 1-bit Black-and-White TIFF-G4 compressed image. Creates most compact black-and-white files.

Writing images

To write one or several images (or pages) specify image or document file path

writer.Open(filePath);

Also you can specify additional optional parameters specific for current writer type. E.g. compression for JPEG or page size for PDF

writer.Configure(bundle);

Write one image or page. You can call it many times to write multiple pages

writer.Write(image);

For more details we strongly recommend to take a close look at our demo applications source codes.

Still have Questions, need Free Trial or Quotation?

Feel free to contact us in case of any inquires at Pixelnetica DSSDK Support.