1. A method for background intensity correction of a scan of pixel values of a document, the scan having at least one background pixel area and at least one non-background pixel area, comprising: segmenting the scan into the at least one background pixel area and the at least one non-background pixel area; calculating a gray background pixel value of the at least one background pixel area, wherein the calculating depends upon at least one peak in a histogram of the pixel values of the at least one background pixel area; and compensating only the pixel values of the at least one background pixel area for background intensity using the calculated gray background pixel value, wherein pixels in the at least one background pixel area are compensated by stretching the pixel values between zero and the at least one peak in the histogram, wherein at least one of the segmenting, calculating and compensating is performed by a scanning apparatus.