function foo=parse2std(arg)
%assumes input from Kens parse function

% Thin then thicken original image to remove difference is line thickness
arg = bwmorph(arg,'thin',Inf);
[xsize ysize] = size(arg);

arg = bwmorph(arg,'dilate',round(max([xsize ysize])/50));

%if stuff is screwin up, its this code here
% it spreads it way out in an attempt to make angled ones vertical

[ydim xdim]=size(arg); %get current size after cropping
if (ydim/xdim > 2.5) %almost certainly a one if this is true
  newxdim=ydim/.75;
  padsize=round((newxdim-xdim)/2);
  arg=[zeros(ydim,padsize) arg zeros(ydim,padsize)];
end

%end potentially crappy code

y=imresize(arg,[25 25],'nearest'); %resize it to a standard 25x25 image   
y=bwmorph(y,'thin',Inf); %thin out all extraneous thickness from fonts

%the problem after thinning is that it leaves black edges that need
%to be cropped, so we do that now
[imgy imgx]=size(y);
blackedge=1;  %a variable to indicate that the current row/col is totally
              %black from thinning and needs to be cropped
x=0;          %start with the lefthand cols first
while blackedge
  x=x+1;
  if any(y(:,x)) %any=1 if any element of () is nonzero
    blackedge=0;
  end
end           %by this point, x is set at the number of rows we crop
y=imcrop(y,[x 1 imgx-1 imgy-1]);

%now we crop the righthand cols 
[imgy imgx]=size(y);
blackedge=1;
x=imgx+1;
while blackedge
  x=x-1;
  if any(y(:,x))
    blackedge=0;
  end
end
y=imcrop(y,[1 1 x-1 imgy-1]);
 
[imgy imgx]=size(y);
blackedge=1;  
x=0;          %start with the top rows first
while blackedge
  x=x+1;
  if any(y(x,:)) 
    blackedge=0;
  end
end           
y=imcrop(y,[1 x imgx-1 imgy-1]);

%now we crop the bottom rows 
[imgy imgx]=size(y);
blackedge=1;
x=imgy+1;
while blackedge
  x=x-1;
  if any(y(x,:))
    blackedge=0;
  end
end
y=imcrop(y,[1 1 imgx-1 x-1]);

%here we address the problem of the handwritten one, which by this point
%is very tall and very skinny - when it gets resized, it gets very fat,
%looking more like a rectangle than a one.  So we test the aspect ratio to
%see if what we have is too skinny.  If so, we fatten it up by padding it
%on the left and right with zeros.  This makes it phat.

[ydim xdim]=size(y); %get current size after cropping
if (ydim/xdim > 2.5) %almost certainly a one if this is true
  newxdim=ydim/2.5;
  padsize=round((newxdim-xdim)/2);
  y=[zeros(ydim,padsize) y zeros(ydim,padsize)];
end
  
y=imresize(y,[25 25],'nearest'); %resize it to a standard 25x25 image
y=bwmorph(y,'dilate');           %thicken the image a bit
y=bwmorph(y,'dilate');
              %dont know if we wanna do that twice, but...
y=255*double(y);
foo=y;