Separation of overlapping text from graphics

The separation of overlapping text from graphics is a challenging problem in document image analysis. This paper proposes a specific method for detecting and extracting characters that are touching graphics. It is based on the observation that the constituent strokes of characters are usually short segments in comparison with those of graphics. It combines line continuation with the feature line width to decompose and reconstruct segments underlying the region of intersection. Experimental results showed that the proposed method improved the percentage of correctly detected text as well as the accuracy of character recognition significantly.