Abstract: The present invention is a method for detecting insets in the structure of a document page so as to further complement the document layout and textual information provided in an optical character recognition system. A system employing the present method preferably includes a document layout analysis system wherein the inset detection methodology is used to extend the capability of an associated character recognition package to more accurately recreate the document being processed.

Abstract: The present invention is a system for providing information on the structure of a document page so as to complement the textual information provided in an optical character recognition system. The system employs a method that can be used to produce a file editable in a native word-processing environment from input data including the content and characteristics of regions of at least one page forming the document. The method includes the steps of: (a) identifying sections within the page; (b) identifying captions; (c) determining boundaries of at least one column on the page, and optionally (d) resizing at least one element of the page of the document so that all pages of the document are of a common size.