We propose a novel algorithm for automatic text line extraction on color and grayscale manuscript pages without prior binarization. Our algorithm is based on seam carving to compute separating seams between text lines. Seam carving is likely to produce seams that move through gaps between neighboring lines, if no information about the text geometry is incorporated into the problem. By constraining the optimization procedure inside the region between two consecutive text lines, we can produce robust separating seams that do not cut through word and line components. Extensive experimental evaluations on diverse manuscript pages show that we improve upon the state-of-the-art for grayscale text line extraction.
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