Abstract: A digital form scoring system that does not require that the targets on the marked form be digitally captured with a drop-out scanner. This is accomplished by locating each target, and in the mark interpretation logic, sensing an area within the outline of the target, then digitally removing all or most of thin lines of print that form a symbol or character within the outline, and removing the shading in the background, before applying the logic that determines whether a region of dark gray scale values in the sensing area should be considered a valid mark entered by the subject.