The ability to distinguish between documents that are clear text and those that are images will help you determine which are better candidates for Conexiom's premier service.
When you write something on your computer, normally you use a font such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman. Even Plain Text is a font. These fonts are based on an international encoding standard called Unicode. The computer draws each individual character using mathematical formulas, which not only takes up far fewer computer resources than recording each pixel, they ensure uniformity and reliability.
In contrast, when you take a picture of text, as when you scan a document or take a screenshot, you create a bitmap. Bitmaps are not developed by formulas; instead, the computer saves the address of each pixel within the image as a color-coded dot. Another name for this type of image is raster image. To the computer, it is no different than any other picture of a bird, or a landscape, or a child: it is simply a combination stored dots. In a raster image, there is no font, no formula, no Unicode, and no relation between one letter and another, as there is with Unicode fonts.
Another type of graphic font is a vector font. These fonts are often used in graphic arts software programs. Vector images of text are usually developed by graphic artists when creating company logos. Computers use formulas to draw the characters in vector fonts, but vector characters are not based on Unicode formulas. When Conexiom asks for clear text, it will nearly always be text from a regular font that is based on Unicode.
Using the Simple Test for Clear Text
You can identify if text is clear text through a simple test. Select a large sample of a document, including lines and boxes, copy it, and then paste it into Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Apple IOS). If the text is readable, without any unexpected characters or large spaces, this usually indicates the document is clear text, so is usable without the aid of the Image Validator application.
Identifying Clear-Text Trading Partners (Video)
The video below provides a brief overview of what clear-text is and how to identify if your trading partners are sending clear-text documents.