Interest in the automatic processing and analysis of document images has been rapidly increasing during the past few years. This book addresses the different subfields of document image analysis, including preprocessing and segmentation, form processing, handwriting recognition, line drawing and map processing, and contextual processing.Contents: Preface (H Bunke et al.)A New Parallel Thinning Algorithm (Y Y Zhang & P S P Wang)Background Structure in Document Images (H S Baird)Analysis of Form Images (D Wang & S N Srihari)Model-Based Analysis and Understanding of Check Forms (T M Ha & H Bunke)Document Structures: A Survey (Y Y Tang & C Y Suen)Automatic Input of Logic Diagrams by Recognizing Loop-Symbols and Rectilinear Connections (S H Kim & J H Kim)Syntactic Analysis of Technical Drawing Dimensions (S Collin & D Colnet)Recognition of Elevation Value in Topographic Maps by Multi-Angled Parallelism (H Yamada et al.)Character Recognition by Signature Approximation (N Papamarkos et al.)An Adaptive Modular Neural Network with Application to Unconstrained Character Recognition (L Mui et al.)A Model-Based Split-and-Merge Method for Character String Recognition (H Nishida & S Mori)A Robust Stroke Extraction Method for Handwritten Chinese Characters (H-D Chang & J-F Wang)Handprinted Chinese Character Recognition Using Probability Distribution Feature (T F Li & S S Yu)An Algorithm for Matching OCR-Generated Text Strings (S V Rice et al.)Readership: Computer scientists.Key Features:Explores for the first time a crucial and much-neglected issue of the science-society relationshipIdentifies critical steps in the shaping of the public image of chemistry and science overallHelps avoid critical mistakes and prepares the chemical community for a constructive dialog with the public