Apparatus and method of processing microfiche images

Apparatus and method of processing microfiche images. The apparatus includes an unattended low-resolution wide area pre scanning station and an unattended high-resolution line scanning station. The low-resolution station automatically identifies active image areas and borders on a plurality of light passing documents transported in seriatim along a prescan path. The unattended low resolution scanning station generates a plurality of active image area signals indicative of the active image areas and borders in a plurality of light passing documents. The unattended high-resolution line scanning station includes a high-resolution line scanner that responds to the individual ones of said plurality of active image area signals. The high resolution scanning station automatically focuses the high resolution line scanner on only the active image areas of said light passing documents and then converts each scanned document image into a corresponding enhanced digital information signal that is indicative of the image information carried on the scanned document.