Synthetic Document Generator¶

genalog is an open source, cross-platform python package for generating document images with synthetic noise that mimics scanned analog documents (thus the name genalog). You can also add various text degradations to these images. The purpose of this tool is to provide a fast and efficient way to generate synthetic documents from text data by leveraging layout from templates that you can create in simple HTML format.

Fig. 1 Generate documents and apply degradations¶

genalog provides several document templates as a start. You can alter the document layout using standard CSS properties like font-family, font-size, text-align, etc. Here are some of the example generated documents:

Multi-Column

Fig. 2 Document template with 2 columns¶

Letter-like

Fig. 3 Letter-like document template¶

Simple Text Block

Fig. 4 Simple text block template¶

Once a document is generated, you can combine various image degradation effects and apply onto the synthetic documents. Here are some of the degradation effects:

Bleed-through

Fig. 5 Mimics a document printed on two sides¶

Blur

Fig. 6 Lowers image quality¶

Salt/Pepper

Fig. 7 Mimics ink degradation¶

Close/Dilate

Fig. 8 Degrades printing quality¶

Open/Erode

Fig. 9 Ink overflows¶

Combined Effects

Fig. 10 Combining various degradation effects: blur, salt, open, and bleed-through¶

In addition to the document generation and degradation, genalog also provide efficient implementation for text alignment between the source and noise text.