Improve OCR on pale grey / low-res dot-matrix print.

Add Lab gamma darkening and optional 1.5x cubic upscale (crops under 1800px) so faint TD-style ribbon ink is readable without slowing sharp captures. Add .gitleaks.toml so the pre-commit secret scan can load default rules.

paperpod/vision/enhance.py

@@ -25,14 +25,58 @@ def normalize_illumination(image_bgr: np.ndarray, blur_fraction: float = 1 / 15)
     return cv2.divide(gray, background, scale=255)
 
 
-def enhance_for_ocr(image_bgr: np.ndarray) -> np.ndarray:
-    """Illumination-normalize + local contrast boost. Returns a BGR image.
+def darken_print(image_bgr: np.ndarray, gamma: float = 1.6) -> np.ndarray:
+    """Pull pale grey ink toward black while keeping paper white and colour.
 
-    Always grayscale-looking (3 identical channels) since normalization
-    operates on luminance. Intended primarily as an OCR preprocessing step;
-    only baked into the saved crop/PDF when document.enhance is enabled.
+    Dot-matrix / faded branch prints photograph as light grey; gamma on the
+    L channel in Lab space darkens midtones (the ink) without flattening the
+    image to grayscale the way enhance_for_ocr does. Applied to saved crops
+    when document.enhance is off.
     """
-    normalized = normalize_illumination(image_bgr)
+    lab = cv2.cvtColor(image_bgr, cv2.COLOR_BGR2LAB)
+    l_ch, a_ch, b_ch = cv2.split(lab)
+    lut = np.clip(((np.arange(256) / 255.0) ** gamma) * 255.0, 0, 255).astype(np.uint8)
+    l_ch = cv2.LUT(l_ch, lut)
+    return cv2.cvtColor(cv2.merge([l_ch, a_ch, b_ch]), cv2.COLOR_LAB2BGR)
+
+
+def enhance_for_ocr(
+    image_bgr: np.ndarray,
+    gamma: float = 2.2,
+    upscale_below_width: int = 1800,
+    upscale_factor: float = 1.5,
+) -> np.ndarray:
+    """Upscale (if small) + illumination-normalize + local contrast + gamma.
+
+    Returns a BGR image, always grayscale-looking (3 identical channels)
+    since normalization operates on luminance. Intended primarily as an OCR
+    preprocessing step; only baked into the saved crop/PDF when
+    document.enhance is enabled.
+
+    The gamma curve darkens faint print without touching the (near-white)
+    page background. Illumination normalization alone leaves light-ribbon
+    dot-matrix text (TD branch statements) too pale for Tesseract — on real
+    footage it was the difference between reading "PAGE 1 OF 2" plus the
+    statement period and reading nothing past the letterhead.
+
+    Dot-matrix ribbon print is made of sparse dots per character stroke, so
+    at typical webcam-distance capture resolution a stroke can be only 1-2px
+    wide — CLAHE/gamma have nothing left to boost once that detail is gone.
+    Cubic-upsampling before contrast work (done once, before CLAHE, so the
+    interpolation works on smooth tonal gradients rather than already-boosted
+    edges) recovers enough of that stroke to read reliably. Skipped above
+    upscale_below_width since upscaling an already-sharp crop just slows
+    Tesseract for no readability gain.
+    """
+    working = image_bgr
+    if upscale_factor and upscale_factor != 1.0 and working.shape[1] < upscale_below_width:
+        working = cv2.resize(
+            working, None, fx=upscale_factor, fy=upscale_factor, interpolation=cv2.INTER_CUBIC
+        )
+    normalized = normalize_illumination(working)
     clahe = cv2.createCLAHE(clipLimit=2.0, tileGridSize=(8, 8))
     boosted = clahe.apply(normalized)
+    if gamma and gamma != 1.0:
+        lut = np.clip(((np.arange(256) / 255.0) ** gamma) * 255.0, 0, 255).astype(np.uint8)
+        boosted = cv2.LUT(boosted, lut)
     return cv2.cvtColor(boosted, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2BGR)

tests/test_enhance.py

@@ -30,8 +30,23 @@ def test_normalize_illumination_returns_grayscale_shape():
 
 def test_enhance_for_ocr_returns_bgr():
     page = _shaded_page()
-    enhanced = enhance_for_ocr(page)
+    # Page is narrower than the default upscale threshold; disable it here so
+    # this test only checks color/shape handling (upscaling is covered below).
+    enhanced = enhance_for_ocr(page, upscale_factor=1.0)
     assert enhanced.shape == page.shape
     # Grayscale-derived: all 3 channels should be identical.
     assert np.array_equal(enhanced[:, :, 0], enhanced[:, :, 1])
     assert np.array_equal(enhanced[:, :, 1], enhanced[:, :, 2])
+
+
+def test_enhance_for_ocr_upscales_small_crops():
+    page = _shaded_page()  # 400px wide, below the default 1800px threshold
+    enhanced = enhance_for_ocr(page, upscale_factor=1.5)
+    assert enhanced.shape[1] == round(page.shape[1] * 1.5)
+    assert enhanced.shape[0] == round(page.shape[0] * 1.5)
+
+
+def test_enhance_for_ocr_skips_upscale_above_threshold():
+    page = _shaded_page()
+    enhanced = enhance_for_ocr(page, upscale_factor=1.5, upscale_below_width=100)
+    assert enhanced.shape == page.shape