---
title: "Tips: How does Despeckle interact with other OCR settings like Deskew?"
url: "https://dm0bkdes5q7a2ls.productfruits.help/en/article/ca7364ac-a7c7-4bc1-abb2-2b8f217cb5f0"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2026-05-05T19:59:01.722Z"
---

# Tips: How does Despeckle interact with other OCR settings like Deskew?

**Despeckle** and **Deskew** are part of a "pre-processing pipeline" that prepares an image for the OCR engine. While they perform different tasks, they are highly complementary; using them together creates a "cleaner" and "straighter" image, which exponentially increases the probability of a successful sensitive data match.

Here is how they interact and work together:

### 1\. The Sequential Workflow

When Spirion encounters an image, it doesn't just "read" it immediately. It applies these settings in a specific order before the character recognition begins:

1.  **Deskew (The "Straightener"):** First, the agent detects if the page is tilted (common in faxes or manual scans). It rotates the image so the lines of text are perfectly horizontal.
2.  **Despeckle (The "Cleaner"):** Once the image is straight, the agent identifies and removes "noise" (stray pixels/dots).
3.  **OCR Engine (The "Reader"):** Finally, the engine looks at the now-straight and now-clean image to identify letters and numbers.

### 2\. Synergistic Benefits

-   **Improved Character Alignment:** If an image is both crooked (**Skewed**) and grainy (**Speckled**), the OCR engine might see a stray dot near a tilted letter "L" and misinterpret it as a "b" or a "h". By straightening the "L" first and then removing the dot, the engine sees a clear, vertical line, resulting in a 100% accurate identification.
-   **Validation Accuracy:** For data like Credit Card numbers or SSNs, a single misread digit (caused by a speckle or a tilt) will cause the **Luhn Check** or **Checksum** to fail. Using both settings ensures the digits are clear and aligned, which significantly reduces "False Negatives" (missing data that was actually there).

### 3\. Performance Trade-offs

-   **Cumulative CPU Load:** Each pre-processing step (Deskew, Despeckle, and others like *Fax Correction*) adds a layer of mathematical calculation.
-   -   Using **only one** might add a 5-10% overhead to the OCR process.
    -   Using **both** can increase the time spent on each image page by 15-25%.
-   **Memory Usage:** The agent must hold the original image, the "deskewed" version, and the "despeckled" version in memory simultaneously during the transition. For very high-resolution images, this can increase the memory footprint of the `SpirionAgent.exe` process.

### 4\. Interaction with "Recognition Mode"

Spirion has a **Recognition Mode** setting (Favor Speed vs. Favor Accuracy):

-   **Favor Accuracy + Deskew + Despeckle:** This is the "Gold Standard" for high-risk discovery. It takes the longest but provides the highest possible detection rate for messy, scanned documents.
-   **Favor Speed + Deskew + Despeckle:** This is a middle ground. The pre-processing cleans the image, but the engine uses a faster, less intensive algorithm to read the characters.

### Summary Table: When to use them together

| Document Condition | Use Deskew? | Use Despeckle? | Result |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Digital Screenshots** | No | No | Fastest scan; high accuracy. |
| **Clean Scans (Straight)** | No | Yes | Removes "dust" artifacts; prevents misreads. |
| **Crooked Faxes** | Yes | Yes | **Essential.** Fixes alignment and removes transmission noise. |
| **Old Photocopies** | Yes | Yes | **Essential.** Fixes "page creep" and paper grain noise. |

**SME Recommendation:** If you are enabling OCR for anything other than high-quality digital screenshots, you should **enable both Deskew and Despeckle**. The performance hit is usually outweighed by the massive improvement in data discovery accuracy.