Historical Documents in a Digital World
Now that the worldwide flow of information is becoming digital and digital libraries are made available. It is also crucial that historic documents are brought online. For example, Google Books, where books were scanned and previewed online. Scanning is the first step, but here in the case of typefaces, we look into OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
Blackletter having lasted for centuries, it must have millions of printed materials using this typeface. But for the modern society, we may not appreciate and have the patience to decode and understand fully the context written in this typeface. Modern technology, however, have eased the trouble of decoding Blackletter. It has "open up" the content for the masses, for search and for other analysis technologies. Below is an illustration of how OCR works.
*Processed with ABBYY Recognition Server
OCR plays an important role in the digitization and decoding of printed cultural heritage at the national, European and global level. Outside a small circle of researchers, most readers today are not capable of reading Gothic writing. Through the use of technologies which makes the reliable text recognition and comprehensive digitization of older documents increasingly possible, historical sources are becoming available to a much larger readership than ever before.
As OCR software advances and becomes increasingly easier to use, old texts are being rediscovered and used for reprints. Users in the acadamic field benefit particularly from digitisation. By capturing text digitally, old documents can now be searched through, allowing for the more efficient research of the documents. The conversion of old texts into modern digital formats such as PDFs and e-books, has thereby expand the possibilities of distributing historical documents considerably, without having to resort to using valuable and fragile paper originals.
posted by Charlene at Wednesday, October 2, 2013 7:02 AM
Historical Documents in a Digital World
Now that the worldwide flow of information is becoming digital and digital libraries are made available. It is also crucial that historic documents are brought online. For example, Google Books, where books were scanned and previewed online. Scanning is the first step, but here in the case of typefaces, we look into OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
Blackletter having lasted for centuries, it must have millions of printed materials using this typeface. But for the modern society, we may not appreciate and have the patience to decode and understand fully the context written in this typeface. Modern technology, however, have eased the trouble of decoding Blackletter. It has "open up" the content for the masses, for search and for other analysis technologies. Below is an illustration of how OCR works.
*Processed with ABBYY Recognition Server
OCR plays an important role in the digitization and decoding of printed cultural heritage at the national, European and global level. Outside a small circle of researchers, most readers today are not capable of reading Gothic writing. Through the use of technologies which makes the reliable text recognition and comprehensive digitization of older documents increasingly possible, historical sources are becoming available to a much larger readership than ever before.
As OCR software advances and becomes increasingly easier to use, old texts are being rediscovered and used for reprints. Users in the acadamic field benefit particularly from digitisation. By capturing text digitally, old documents can now be searched through, allowing for the more efficient research of the documents. The conversion of old texts into modern digital formats such as PDFs and e-books, has thereby expand the possibilities of distributing historical documents considerably, without having to resort to using valuable and fragile paper originals.
posted by Charlene at Wednesday, October 2, 2013 7:02 AM
Black Knights
- Kang Kai An (U1230534G)
- Lawrence Pow Zi Xian (U1230452G)
- Loh Wan Teng (U1230601K)
- Tan Wen Hui Charlene (U1030381K)
Bibliography
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