diff --git a/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-processor/src/main/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/processor/model/ExtractedOcrImage.java b/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-processor/src/main/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/processor/model/ExtractedOcrImage.java
index 884df82..6455f97 100644
--- a/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-processor/src/main/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/processor/model/ExtractedOcrImage.java
+++ b/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-processor/src/main/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/processor/model/ExtractedOcrImage.java
@@ -45,12 +45,22 @@ public class ExtractedOcrImage implements OcrImage {
         this.originalHeight = bufferedImage.getHeight();
         this.originalWidth = bufferedImage.getWidth();
         float imageDPI = Math.abs(bufferedImage.getWidth() / (ctm.getScalingFactorX() / 72));
-        this.pix = ImageProcessingUtils.process(bufferedImage, imageDPI, targetDpi);
+        this.pix = binarize(bufferedImage, imageDPI, targetDpi);
         this.height = pix.h;
         this.width = pix.w;
     }
 
 
+    @SneakyThrows
+    synchronized private Pix binarize(BufferedImage image, float imageDpi, int targetDpi) {
+
+        ImageProcessingUtils.setAlphaChannelToWhite(image);
+        Pix grayScale = ImageProcessingUtils.convertToGrayScale(image);
+        Pix scaledUp = ImageProcessingUtils.scaleToTargetDpi(imageDpi, targetDpi, grayScale);
+        return ImageProcessingUtils.despecklePix(scaledUp);
+    }
+
+
     @Override
     public AffineTransform getImageCTM() {
 
diff --git a/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-processor/src/main/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/processor/utils/ImageProcessingUtils.java b/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-processor/src/main/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/processor/utils/ImageProcessingUtils.java
index c2dab97..27621b3 100644
--- a/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-processor/src/main/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/processor/utils/ImageProcessingUtils.java
+++ b/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-processor/src/main/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/processor/utils/ImageProcessingUtils.java
@@ -15,24 +15,7 @@ import net.sourceforge.lept4j.util.LeptUtils;
 @UtilityClass
 public class ImageProcessingUtils {
 
-    public Pix process(BufferedImage image, float imageDpi, int targetDpi) {
-
-        setAlphaChannelToWhite(image);
-        return processWithLeptonica(image, imageDpi, targetDpi);
-    }
-
-
-    // LeptUtils and Leptonica1 does not seem to be thread safe, so we must ensure synchronization for the image processing.
-    // There might be a way to get this working multi-threaded, but it does not seem to be a significant runtime factor, so i didn't bother investing the time to dive deeper.
-    synchronized private static Pix processWithLeptonica(BufferedImage image, float imageDpi, int targetDpi) {
-
-        Pix grayScale = convertToGrayScale(image);
-        Pix scaledUp = scaleToTargetDpi(imageDpi, targetDpi, grayScale);
-        return despecklePix(scaledUp);
-    }
-
-
-    private static Pix despecklePix(Pix scaledUp) {
+    public static Pix despecklePix(Pix scaledUp) {
 
         assert scaledUp.d == 8;
         Pix despeckled = LeptUtils.despeckle(scaledUp, LeptUtils.SEL_STR3, 3);
@@ -46,7 +29,7 @@ public class ImageProcessingUtils {
     }
 
 
-    private static Pix scaleToTargetDpi(float imageDpi, int targetDpi, Pix grayScale) {
+    public static Pix scaleToTargetDpi(float imageDpi, int targetDpi, Pix grayScale) {
 
         float targetFactor = targetDpi / imageDpi;
 
@@ -67,7 +50,7 @@ public class ImageProcessingUtils {
 
 
     @SneakyThrows
-    private static Pix convertToGrayScale(BufferedImage image) {
+    public static Pix convertToGrayScale(BufferedImage image) {
 
         Pix pix = LeptUtils.convertImageToPix(image);
         if (pix.d == 8) {
@@ -84,7 +67,7 @@ public class ImageProcessingUtils {
     }
 
 
-    private static void setAlphaChannelToWhite(BufferedImage image) {
+    public static void setAlphaChannelToWhite(BufferedImage image) {
 
         if (image.getTransparency() == Transparency.TRANSLUCENT) {
             // NOTE: For BITMASK images, the color model is likely IndexColorModel,
diff --git a/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-server/src/test/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/v1/server/OcrServiceIntegrationTest.java b/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-server/src/test/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/v1/server/OcrServiceIntegrationTest.java
index f76b416..098c7de 100644
--- a/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-server/src/test/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/v1/server/OcrServiceIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/ocr-service-v1/ocr-service-server/src/test/java/com/knecon/fforesight/service/ocr/v1/server/OcrServiceIntegrationTest.java
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ public class OcrServiceIntegrationTest extends AbstractTest {
     }
 
 
+
     @SneakyThrows
     private void testOCRForFile(File file) {