> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.abbyy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# About machine-readable forms

> Overview of machine-readable forms in ABBYY FlexiCapture: how forms differ from other documents, processing stages, and links to design requirements.

Questionnaires, social security forms, polling slips, and warranty cards are all different types of **form** used to collect different types of information.

Forms differ from other types of document in two ways:

1. A form always contains a set number of fields.
2. Each field may contain only a certain type of information. For example, a "Last Name" field contains only last names (if completed correctly) and a "Date" field contains only dates.

Forms are used when information needs to be gathered from a large number of respondents. Manual information gathering is a long and tiresome process, and typos and errors are almost inevitable. Machine-readable forms are used to automate this process.

Automated forms processing consists of the following stages:

1. Setting up the form-processing application (creating a Document Definition and specifying the fields to be recognized).
2. Acquiring form images (scanning).
3. Processing the form images (recognizing the images and validating the extracted data).
4. Exporting the extracted data to an external information system.

Automated processing of forms is most effective for forms that satisfy the requirements described in the following topics.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Machine-readable forms" href="/flexi-capture/mrf-requirements/ap-mrf-form">
    What makes a form machine-readable.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Elements of machine-readable forms" href="/flexi-capture/mrf-requirements/ap-mrf-elements">
    The elements a form can contain.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Form completion methods" href="/flexi-capture/mrf-requirements/ap-mrf-filling">
    How respondents fill out forms.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Types of machine-readable form" href="/flexi-capture/mrf-requirements/ap-mrf-types">
    Dropout, raster, and linear form types.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Choose a form type" href="/flexi-capture/mrf-requirements/ap-mrf-change-type">
    Compare the form types to pick the best one.
  </Card>

  <Card title="General requirements for machine-readable forms" href="/flexi-capture/mrf-requirements/ap-mrf-requirement">
    Design rules for reliable recognition.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>