2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic includes at least one of a text element matching a font defined in the component repository and a non-text element matching a shape defined in the component repository.
1. A computer-implemented data processing method comprising: receiving, by a processor, an electronic document comprising content original to the electronic document and content added to the electronic document by a document user, the electronic document including at least one of a hard copy document optically scanned via an optical scanning device and a digital document electronically annotated via a computing device; automatically comparing, by the processor, a plurality of characteristics of the electronic document to representative document components in a component repository, each characteristic including one of a text component and a graphical component; determining, by the processor, whether the added content includes at least one of handwritten comments and highlighted text based on the comparison; automatically categorizing, by the processor, each characteristic of the electronic document as one of a structured component representing the original content and an unstructured component representing the added content, the original content having at least one characteristic that matches at least one of the representative document components, the added content having no characteristic that matches any of the representative document components; identifying, by the processor based on the categorization, a first portion of the electronic document containing the structured component representing the original content and a second portion of the electronic document containing the unstructured component representing the added content; and generating, by the processor, an electronic copy of the electronic document, wherein the electronic copy includes the first portion of the electronic document containing the structured component representing the original content, and wherein the electronic copy excludes the second portion of the electronic document containing the unstructured component representing the added content.