1. A process executed in a computer or processor for distinguishing a form lying atop a stack of forms, the process comprising the steps of: capturing an optical image of the top of the stack of forms; digitizing the optical image into a digital image of pixels and storing the pixels in a memory; detecting image components from the stored pixels; generating a location and attributes for each component found; comparing the detected image components to features of known forms, wherein the step of comparing compares the location, attributes and orientation of each candidate component to a feature; if the comparing is successful, the form is known; and processing all the other components on the form, wherein the comparing of locations of a subsequent candidate component to the next feature from the feature list includes a first measuring the distance between at least one prior successful candidate and the subsequent candidate component and a second measuring the distance between the corresponding feature, wherein a correction scale factor for distance is calculated from the ratio of the first to the second measurements, wherein the distance scale factor is applied when comparing the next candidate component to the next feature, and further re-calculating the distance scale factor as each new candidate component is compared to the next feature.