AUTOMATIC DOCUMENT IMAGE REVISION

A system for electronically storing revisions or modifications to documents which are already electronically stored in unrevised or unmodified form. The system compares, at the pixel-by-pixel level, a modified document bit map with a stored document bit map and determines from the differences between the two bit maps, at the pixel-by-pixel level, which differences are significant and which are insignificant. A revised document bit map is then formed from the portions of the stored-document bit map exhibiting no significant bit map differences and the significant differences bit map. The result is a revised document bit map in which no unnecessary changes have been introduced into the initial stored-document bit map. The system also includes steps for defining, on a pixel-by-pixel basis, a significant region bit map from the significant difference bit map and for forming the revised document bit map using the significant region bit map.