Analysis, understanding and representation of Chinese newspaper with complex layout

Layout analysis, understanding and representation are important problems when transforming paper document to its electronic version. For a Chinese newspaper with a complex layout, a bottom-up algorithm of layout analysis based on nearest neighbor connect-strength and line confidence is proposed. We also propose a rule-based growing algorithm used for layout understanding. The implementation of layout representation is discussed at the same time. Using these algorithms with a Chinese OCR engine, we developed a complete system that can be used for automatic electronic publishing. The algorithms were proved to be efficient and practical by experimental results and by a practically running system.