Automatic page composition with combined image crop and layout metrics

Automatic layout algorithms simplify the composition of image-rich documents, but they still require users to have sufficient artistry to supply well cropped and composed imagery. Combining an automatic cropping technology with a document layout system enables better results to be produced faster by less-skilled users. This paper reviews prior work in automatic image cropping and automatic page layout and presents a case for a combined crop and layout technology. We describe one such technology in a system for interactive publication design by amateur self-publishers and show that providing an automatic cropping system with additional information about the layout context can enable it to generate a more appropriate set of ranked crop options for a given image. Furthermore, we show that providing an automatic layout system with sets of ranked crop options for images can enable it to compose more appropriate page layouts.