BACKGROUND COLOR ESTIMATION FOR SCANNED IMAGES

A background color estimation system and method for estimating a background color of a scanned image. The background color estimation method includes generating a list of candidate background colors present in the image, determining the most common candidate color from the list, and designating the most common candidate background color as the estimated background color. Candidate colors are extracted from the scanned image by examining lines of pixels in the image and generating frequency distributions (such as histograms) of pixel colors within the lines. The frequency value of the most common pixel color in the frequency distribution is compared to a frequency threshold. If the frequency value is greater than the frequency threshold, the most common pixel color is considered a candidate background color. In addition, a variance of the estimated background color is obtained and can be used to intelligently select a threshold for additional image processing techniques.