  Although binarization is considered passe, it still remains a highly popular
research topic. In this paper we propose a rethinking of what binarization is.
We introduce the notion of the visual archetype as the ideal form of any one
document. Binarization can be defined as the restoration of the visual
archetype for a class of images. This definition broadens the scope of what
binarization means but also suggests ground-truth should focus on the
foreground.
