Home
Production
Descriptions of OCR processing, TEI transformation, and metadata creation
Page Files
Explains the procedures we use to get the best quality OCR of each page.
Page Recognition
Excellent page recognition depends on preparing pages properly.
OCR for eb03
Scanning eb03 requires special settings.

Production
Descriptions of OCR processing, TEI transformation, and metadata creation
- Organization
  How to keep hundreds of thousands of files organized.
- Page Files
  Explains the procedures we use to get the best quality OCR of each page.
  - AFR Interface
    Learn about the main elements of the program interface
  - Create a Page-Inventory File
    Create a page-inventory file.
  - Create an Image Collection
    Organize image files for scanning.
  - Create an OCR-Project
    How to create and manage an OCR-Project.
  - Settings
    Recommended settings for all options in ABBYY FineReader
  - Draw Boxes
    Manually creating text recognition boxes improves accuracy
  - Page Recognition
    Excellent page recognition depends on preparing pages properly.
    - Verification
      Use AFR's built-in program to verify recognition accuracy on each page.
    - Proofread
      How much additional proofreading is appropriate?
    - Add Dictionary Words
      Teach AFR how to spell.
    - Code Footnotes
      Using @-codes for footnotes.
    - Code Marginal Notes
      When and how to encode marginal notes.
    - Formulas and Equations
      Scanning simple and complex math and chemical formulas.
    - Train OCR
      Advanced users can improve recognition with user patterns.
    - OCR for eb03
      Scanning eb03 requires special settings.
  - Save and Output
    How to output your OCR results.
  - TEI-XML
    This introduction to Oxygen XML Editor shows you how to navigate the interface and perform standard procedures on the Encyclopedia files.
- Entry Files
  Procedures for converting single pages into Encyclopedia entries.
- Master Files
  After creating entry files, we run an automated metadata generation process to add index terms to each entry.

OCR for eb03

Scanning eb03 requires special settings.

All the editions of Encyclopedia Britannica have slightly different layouts, but additional considerations come into play when scanning eb03.

Figure 1. Typical page from eb03

Long-s

Most printed books before 1820 use ſ instead of s. This is the "long-s," and eb03 is no exception. ABBYY FineReader is good at recognizing it, but far from perfect. We replace ſ with s in the TEI editions, so for corrections, you can use the s on the keyboard. There are specific rules for when typographers used ſ: at the beginning and middle of words, but never at the end. Bear this in mind when trying to determine the intended word.

Ligatures

Combinations of letters into a single letter-form, such as the "st" in "first" and "Palestine" on lines 2 and 3 above, are called "ligatures," and they were widespread in pre-1850s printed matter. AFR will often misrecognize ligatures, unless it is trained to identify them when recognizing the page. For instructions, see Train OCR.