diff --git a/src/textord/tablerecog.cpp b/src/textord/tablerecog.cpp
index 714173386..1d1333dc7 100644
--- a/src/textord/tablerecog.cpp
+++ b/src/textord/tablerecog.cpp
@@ -304,6 +304,36 @@ void StructuredTable::Display(ScrollView* window, ScrollView::Color color) {
 #endif
 }
 
+std::vector<TBOX> StructuredTable::getRows()
+{
+  if(cell_y_.size() < 2)
+    return std::vector<TBOX>();
+  
+  std::vector<TBOX> rows(cell_y_.size() - 1);
+  for(unsigned i = 0; i + 1 < cell_y_.size(); i++) {
+    const ICOORD left(bounding_box_.left(), cell_y_[i]);
+    const ICOORD right(bounding_box_.right(), cell_y_[i + 1]);
+    rows[i] = TBOX(left, right);
+  }
+ 
+  return rows;
+}
+
+std::vector<TBOX> StructuredTable::getCols()
+{
+  if(cell_x_.size() < 2)
+    return std::vector<TBOX>();
+  
+  std::vector<TBOX> cols(cell_x_.size() - 1);
+  for(unsigned i = 0; i + 1 < cell_x_.size(); i++) {
+    const ICOORD top(cell_x_[i], bounding_box_.top());
+    const ICOORD bot(cell_x_[i+1], bounding_box_.bottom());
+    cols[i] = TBOX(top, bot);
+  }
+ 
+  return cols;
+}
+
 // Clear structure information.
 void StructuredTable::ClearStructure() {
   cell_x_.clear();
diff --git a/src/textord/tablerecog.h b/src/textord/tablerecog.h
index f993f301a..88e2443c2 100644
--- a/src/textord/tablerecog.h
+++ b/src/textord/tablerecog.h
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@
 
 #include "colpartitiongrid.h"
 #include <tesseract/genericvector.h>
+#include <vector>
+#include "points.h"
 
 namespace tesseract {
 
@@ -136,6 +138,11 @@ class StructuredTable {
   // Debug display, draws the table in the given color. If the table is not
   // valid, the table and "best" grid lines are still drawn in the given color.
   void Display(ScrollView* window, ScrollView::Color color);
+  
+  /// calcualte bounding boxes of the rows and return them
+  std::vector<TBOX> getRows();
+  /// calcualte bounding boxes of the columns and return them
+  std::vector<TBOX> getCols();
 
  protected:
   // Clear the structure information.