ISO/TS 12029:2007

Electronic imaging — Forms design optimization for electronic image management

ISO/TS 12029:2007 provides guidelines for the design of forms to be completed by users and scanned for processing by electronic image management (EIM) systems. These guidelines are limited to forms using roman characters.

Imagerie électronique — Optimisation de conception de formulaires pour la gestion d'images électroniques

General Information

• Status: Withdrawn
• Publication Date: 05-Mar-2007
• Withdrawal Date: 05-Mar-2007
• ICS: 37.080 - Document imaging applications
• Technical Committee: ISO/TC 171/SC 2 - Document file formats, EDMS systems and authenticity of information
• Drafting Committee: ISO/TC 171/SC 2 - Document file formats, EDMS systems and authenticity of information
• Current Stage: 9599 - Withdrawal of International Standard
• Completion Date: 23-Jul-2010

Relations

• Revised: ISO 12029:2010 - Document management — Machine-readable paper forms — Optimal design for user friendliness and electronic document management systems (EDMS)
• Effective Date: 04-Feb-2009
• Revises: ISO/TS 12029:2002 - Electronic imaging — Forms design optimization for electronic image management
• Effective Date: 15-Apr-2008

Standards Content (Sample)

TECHNICAL ISO/TS
SPECIFICATION 12029
Second edition
2007-03-15

Electronic imaging — Forms design
optimization for electronic image
management
Imagerie électronique — Optimisation de conception de formulaires
pour la gestion d'images électroniques




Reference number
ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)
©
ISO 2007

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ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)
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©  ISO 2007
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ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)
Contents Page
Foreword. iv
Introduction . v
1 Scope. 1
2 Normative references. 1
3 Terms and definitions. 1
4 Layout and design . 2
4.1 General. 2
4.2 Data storage requirement . 2
4.3 Page format. 2
4.4 Type. 3
4.5 Machine printed stylized information . 4
4.6 Hand-printed information. 7
4.7 Location or registration marks. 7
4.8 Highlighting . 8
4.9 Printed rules. 8
5 User guidance. 8
5.1 General. 8
5.2 Hand-written entries . 8
5.3 Printed instructions. 9
5.4 Form features . 9
5.5 Optical mark recognition (OMR). 12
6 Post-printing features. 13
6.1 Perforations. 13
6.2 Holes. 13
6.3 Die-cuts. 13
6.4 Folds. 13
6.5 Multi-part forms. 13
6.6 Padding. 13
6.7 Carbonizing . 13
7 Materials. 14
7.1 Paper quality. 14
7.2 Printing ink . 14
8 Form testing . 15
9 New technology . 15
Bibliography . 16

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ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies
(ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO
technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been
established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and
non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of technical committees is to prepare International Standards. Draft International Standards
adopted by the technical committees are circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an
International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies casting a vote.
In other circumstances, particularly when there is an urgent market requirement for such documents, a
technical committee may decide to publish other types of normative document:
⎯ an ISO Publicly Available Specification (ISO/PAS) represents an agreement between technical experts in
an ISO working group and is accepted for publication if it is approved by more than 50 % of the members
of the parent committee casting a vote;
⎯ an ISO Technical Specification (ISO/TS) represents an agreement between the members of a technical
committee and is accepted for publication if it is approved by 2/3 of the members of the committee casting
a vote.
An ISO/PAS or ISO/TS is reviewed after three years in order to decide whether it will be confirmed for a
further three years, revised to become an International Standard, or withdrawn. If the ISO/PAS or ISO/TS is
confirmed, it is reviewed again after a further three years, at which time it must either be transformed into an
International Standard or be withdrawn.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO/TS 12029 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 171, Document management applications,
Subcommittee SC 2, Application issues.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO/TS 12029:2002), which has been technically
revised.
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ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)
Introduction
This Technical Specification discusses issues and provides guidance for the design of forms that are used for
electronic capture of information. Features include
⎯ colour dropouts,
⎯ type fonts,
⎯ printing screen tints,
⎯ line width,
⎯ data storage, and
⎯ other interrelated issues.
It is necessary to balance conflicting requirements of user-friendliness and electronic capture. Making a form
appealing by use of colour or graphics could assist users when they complete the form, but could also
decrease the form’s scannability or other automated related functions. This conflict might require compromise
in design of a form.
While this Technical Specification focuses on electronic forms' design and structure, it should be noted that
paper based forms' design and structure can have different characteristics which ensure usability and
readability. It is advisable that the user use these specifications when developing electronic forms while
keeping in mind that paper based forms can be easily replicated in an electronic format (with the same content
as in the paper based form), but with differing fonts and spacing.

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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)

Electronic imaging — Forms design optimization for electronic
image management
1 Scope
This Technical Specification provides guidelines for the design of forms to be completed by users and
scanned for processing by electronic image management (EIM) systems. These guidelines are limited to
forms using roman characters.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 1073-1, Alphanumeric character sets for optical recognition — Part 1: Character set OCR-A — Shapes
and dimensions of the printed image
ISO 1073-2, Alphanumeric character sets for optical recognition — Part 2: Character set OCR-B — Shapes
and dimensions of the printed image
ISO 12651, Electronic imaging — Vocabulary
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 12651 and the following apply.
3.1
alphanumeric
pertaining to a character set that contains letters, numbers and other characters, such as punctuation marks
and symbols
NOTE See ISO/IEC 2382-4.
3.2
dropout ink
ink of a colour that cannot be detected by a scanner
3.3
font
complete set of characters of a given size, weight and style of type, including capitals, small capitals and
lower-case characters, together with figures, punctuation marks, ligatures, etc.
NOTE See ISO/IEC 2382-23.
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ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)
3.4
magnetic ink character recognition
MICR
machine recognition of digits printed with magnetizable ink
NOTE See ISO 2033.
3.5
character pitch
number of characters per unit length of a line of print
3.6
recognition zone
area around a recognition data field that is free of other data
3.7
optical mark recognition
OMR
machine recognition of a mark, such as a tick, cross or spot based on minimum area rather than shape of the
mark
4 Layout and design
4.1 General
The design of a form that is easiest for a person to complete can be in conflict with the most machine-
readable form. For example, in a user-friendly layout, the following items, all interspersed with printed
instructions next to specific areas, might be desirable:
⎯ large print,
⎯ colour-coded areas, and
⎯ areas to be completed with both alphabetic and numeric information.
However, in a form designed for EIM, strict segregation of spaces for numeric and alphabetic information and
instructional text within dropout colour areas can all be essential features. Optimum design can require a
compromise between ideal user and scanner requirements. All logically connected information should be
placed on the same page.
4.2 Data storage requirement
The designer should be aware of the impact on data storage requirements of line borders, screened tints and
logos or other design elements with large areas of reversed print. Reversed print will make heavy demands on
data storage. For all designs, particularly those having large areas of reversed print, the amount of data
storage required should be determined and compared to the amount of data storage available within the
system.
4.3 Page format
On each page of a form, the margin all around should not be less than 10 mm. If the document is bound,
padded or has punched holes or die cuts, the margin at that edge should be not less than 25 mm, and holes
and die cuts should be restricted to that margin.
Text and entry fields should not be within 6,5 mm of any crease or perforation.
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ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)
4.4 Type
4.4.1 Typeface
There are two styles of typeface commonly used on forms, serif and sanserif, as illustrated in Figure 1.
E
E
Serif Sanserif
Figure 1 — Comparison of serif and sanserif typefaces
Serif style is designed for ease of legibility, has variable line width within a character and a cross-line finishing
a stroke of a letter. Sanserif has uniform line width within a character and no cross-lines. It is the style used in
International Standards.
Serif type will inherently take more data storage capacity in a compressed image than sanserif type because
more information has to be recorded for each character. With the most commonly used compression
techniques, approximately 10 % more storage is required for a page printed in serif, as compared with one
printed in sanserif type.
Sanserif generally requires less horizontal line space and more vertical height than the same point size serif
type. Because of its uniform line width, it is preferred for photocopying, microfilming and scanning.
For forms which might be used in optical character recognition (OCR) applications, sanserif typefaces should
be used.
For information on a form that is not required to be captured by scanning, the style of typeface used is not
important.
4.4.2 Symbols
An OCR program can use a particular symbol to prompt an action. The forms designer should be aware of
any such symbols and avoid the use of them other than as a prompt.
4.4.3 Spacing
In typesetting, character spacing can be either fixed or proportional. In fixed typesetting, each character takes
up equal horizontal space. Proportional typesetting allows for characters of different width, such as the width
of “i” compared with that of “w”, and automatically adjusts space between the individual characters to give a
more natural appearance.
There should be a clear gap between characters. The recommended minimum gap is not less than the width
of the vertical stroke of characters of the font.
The designer should also be concerned with vertical spacing requirements of an OCR system. Although
4,2 mm vertical spacing is usually sufficient for typewritten entries, at least twice that amount of space is
necessary for hand-printed entries and for separating entries for OCR.
4.4.4 Character pitch
Form design should allow no more than 0,4 characters per millimetre for character pitch.
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ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)
4.4.5 Character size
In the printing industry, type size is usually specified in millimetres. In a computer or typewriter, type size is
usually indicated in points. Fortunately, the printing industry is familiar with both systems and can easily
translate requirements. The point (0,35 mm) is a unit derived from the height of metal slugs, once commonly,
but now rarely, used to set type. The size of character is not directly related to point size. For a given point
size, the actual heights of the same upper-case character can be different for various typefaces. There is also
variation in the ratio of heights of lower-case “e” to upper-case characters. This means that for a given point
size, even if upper-case characters of two different typefaces have the same height, there is a possibility that
this is not so for lower-case characters. Because it is the size of the lower-case characters that will limit
scannability, minimum acceptable point size should be determined by the height of the lower-case “e”. The
recommended minimum height of the lower-case “e” is 1,4 mm.
If the EIM system is used as a transfer medium as part of overall processing of the information extracted from
a form, the minimum type size used shall allow for any degradation of image quality resulting from subsequent
parts of the process.
4.4.6 Weight
The weight of a type font is its relative line thickness, ranging from light to extra bold. Font weight directly
affects the number of dots or pixels used to display a character of an electronic image. Different weights can
also be used to emphasize or reduce significance of text blocks or captions for the user.
4.4.7 Type family
Design variations on a basic typeface can include italic, condensed, expanded and others. Form designers
should try to keep the number of type families used within a form to a minimum to project an uncomplicated
appearance that is pleasing to the eye. EIM systems, particularly OCR software, can also benefit from limited
use of type families.
4.5 Machine printed stylized information
4.5.1 General
Information may be presented on a form as a bar code, or in OCR or MICR characters. These bar codes and
stylized character sets are especially designed for automated processing and are machine readable with high
accuracy.
Machine reading is not always wholly accurate. The degree of accuracy achievable can be improved if forms
have error-checking features built into their design. Whenever possible, forms should be designed to use a
second source of information for cross checking. When calculation is involved, both subtotal and entry figures
should appear on forms in order that the processing system can recalculate the subtotal and compare it with
the amount read. Other examples of information for cross checking are account number/customer name and
version number/issue date.
4.5.2 OCR fonts
OCR fonts, such as Farrington 7B, OCR-A and OCR-B, are available with numeric only and alphanumeric
character sets for automated recognition. Data encoded using OCR fonts shall be printed in accordance with
the relevant International Standards (see Table 1).
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ISO/TS 12029:2007(E)
Table 1 — OCR font standards
Code types supported International Standard
OCR-A Numeric ISO 1073-1
OCR-A Alphanumeric ISO 1073-1
OCR-B Numeric ISO 1073-2
OCR-B Alphanumeric ISO 1073-2

OCR characters should be printed
...