Grouping fixed format document elements to preserve graphical data semantics after reflow by manipulating a bounding box vertically and horizontally

摘要

Determining relationships between graphical elements in a fixed format document is provided. Graphical element sizes and their relative positions may be analyzed to determine whether two or more graphical elements should be aggregated together or whether the graphical elements should belong to different graphical groups. Graphs and figures comprising objects that are absolutely positioned may be detected, as well as objects where inter-element positions need to be preserved from regular document flow. Additionally, background objects may be differentiated from regular text flow when the objects overlap with text.