Optical Mark Recognition - OMR Software

OMR Software

OMR Software is a computer software application that makes OMR possible on a desktop computer by using an Image scanner to process surveys, tests, attendance sheets, checklists, and other plain-paper forms printed on a laser printer.

The need for OMR software originated because early optical mark recognition systems were designed to use dedicated scanners and special pre-printed forms with drop-out colors and registration marks. Such forms typically cost USD $0.10 to $0.19 a page. In contrast, OMR Software users design their own mark-sense forms with a word processor or built-in form editor and print them locally on a laser printer saving themselves thousands of dollars on large numbers of forms.

Identifying optical marks within a form such as for processing census forms, has been offered by many forms processing (Batch Transaction Capture) companies since the late 1980s. Mostly this is based on a bitonal image and pixel count with minimum and maximum pixel counts to eliminate extraneous marks such as those erased with a dirty eraser that when converted into a black and white image (bitonal)can look like a legitimate mark. So this method can cause problems when a user changes his mind, and so some products started to use grayscale to better identify the intent of the marker—internally scantron and NCS scanners used grayscale.

One of the first OMR software packages that used bitonal images from image scanners was Remark Office OMR, made by Gravic, Inc. (originally named Principia Products, Inc.). Remark Office OMR 1.0 was released in 1991.