Abstract: A system for retrieving information from a document. The system includes a document model representative of the document having a plurality of data structures representative of components within the document and a thumbnail image registered with the document model. The registration is accomplished by mapping selected coordinates within the thumbnail image to a data structure selected from the plurality of data structures. In this manner, a user can interact with the thumbnail image coordinates to retrieve data from the document as a function of the components mapped to those coordinates. In a further embodiment of the invention, the retrieved information may be streamed to a word-at-a-time display. This is particularly useful when used in connection with the display of low-resolution images on hand-held devices.