Chapter XI: Strait of Magellan.--Climate of the Southern Coasts (2)

Text size

Champlain was now definitely committed to
the task of gaining for France a foothold in
North America. This was to be his steady
purpose, whether fortune frowned or smiled.
At times circumstances seemed favourable ;
at other times they were most disheartening.
Hence, if we are to understand his life and
character, we must consider, however briefly,
the conditions under which he worked.

gocr 0.3.6 converted this as:

Champtain was now definitely committed to
the task of gaining for France a foothotd in
_orth America. This was to be his steady
purpose, whether fortune frowned or smiled.
At times circumstances seemed favourable .,
at other times they were most disheartening.
_ence, if we are to understand his life and
character, we must consider, however brieRy,
the conditions under which he worked.

* * * * *

Scan 2--A Typical Scan

Scan2 is a paragraph from Baroness Orczy's "Castles in the Air". Notice the ink-splotch above the capital "I" in the first line, which will give our OCR some problems. The page is also unevenly inked elsewhere, and I have scanned it with the brightness level a bit too high.

I have made two separate scans, one at 300dpi and one at 400dpi, both Black and White, named scan2-3.tif and scan2-4.tif respectively. The page was cleanly cut, and carefully placed straight onto the scanner glass with the cover down. The original print is somewhere between the size of Times New Roman 10 and 11, with capital letters about 2.2 millimeters high, but better and more clearly spaced. These scans are fairly typical for PG work. Because of the relatively large letters, and the reasonable scan, there isn't much difference between the text produced from the 300 dpi scan and the 400 dpi scan.

I actually cut this book to get the pages out so that I could feed it through my ADF, but the paper is so thick and textured that it sticks together, and jams when feeding through. The thick, absorbent paper, combined with the uneven inking, means that, no matter how good the scan, any OCR has to contend with the irregular edges of letters, which are clearly visible even at 300dpi.

Here is the output for these scans from some OCR software packages. I changed just one thing: Abbyy recognized the em-dashes as such, and output them as a special character in Codepage 1252 for em-dashes, which isn't available in ASCII, so I converted that to the PG standard 2 dashes.

Abbyy FineReader 6:

Yes, indeed, I was on the track of M. Aristide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hauls of enemy goods
which had ever been made in France. Not only that. I
had also before me one of the most brutish criminals it
had ever been my misfortune to come across. A bully, a
fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertile brain %vas
seething with plans for eventually laying that abominable
ruffian by the heels: hanging would be a merciful pun-
ishment for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thousand
francs--a goodly sum in those days, Sir--was practically
assured me. But over and above mere lucre there was
the certainty that in a few days' time I should see the
light of gratitude shining out of a pair of lustrous blue
eyes, and a winning smile chasing away the look of
fear and of sorrow from the sweetest face I had seen for
many a day.

Yes, indeed, Twas on the track of M. Aristide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hauls of enemy goods
which had ever been made in France. Not only that. I
had also before me one of the most brutish criminals it
had ever been my misfortune to come across. A bully, a
fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertile brain was
seething with plans for eventually laying that abominable
ruffian by the heels: hanging would be a merciful pun-
ishment for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thousand
francs--a goodly sum in those days, Sir--was practically
assured me. But over and above mere lucre there was
the certainty that in a few days' time I should see the
light of gratitude shining out of a pair of lustrous blue
eyes, and a winning smile chasing away the look of
fear and of sorrow from the sweetest face I had seen for
many a day.

gocr 0.3.6:

__e_, indeed, f___as on_the track of h_. hristide Fournier,
3nd of one of the most im__ant hau1s of enem)_ goods
___hich had e__er been made in France. h?ot onl3_ that. I
had a1so before me one of the most brUtish crimînat_s it
h__4 e___er been m31 misfortune to co_me acro__3. A bu113_, a
tiend oí cruelt__. In very truth m3_ fertiIe brain ___as
s_e_1_::_g __-ith planS for e__entua113_ _ay:ng that abominab1e
ru_iin b.__ t1_e hee1s . hanginig __ou1d be a n_erciful pun-
i;__,i__gnt íor such a miscreanf. yes, in_i__ee3, fj_1e thou3and
francî-a b_ood13_ sum in those days, _ir-_vas practica1l3_

a3_ured me. _ut o___er and above n_ere lucre there was
the certaint_v that in a few_ da3_s' ti_e I shou1d see the
lib_ht of gratitude shininb_ out of a pair _f _usLtrous btue
e3_e3_, and a ___inning smi1e chasing a__ay the Ioo_ of
_ear and of sorrow from the s__eetest iace T had Seen fof
man)_ a day.

Yes, indeed, f___as on the track of h__. Ariseide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hau1s _f enemy goods
___hich had ever been made in France. NoEUR on1y that. I
had also before me one of the most brutish crimina1s it
h_ad ever been my misfo__tune to come acros__. A bu11y, a
fiend of crue1ty. _n very truth my fertib brain _vas
seeî3_:i_g __ith plans for e__entua11p 1aying _at abom_in_ ab1e
ru_an by the heels. hanging _____ou1d _ a merciful pun-
iï_h_ment for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thou__and
f_ancs-a b_ood1y sum in those days, _ir-_vas practica1ly
a3îured me. But over and above mere _ucre th.ere was
th_e certainty that in a few days' ti_e _ shou1d see the
1i__t of gratjtude shining out of a pair o_, _userous b1ue
b .
e__es, and a __inning smi1e chasing away the l_k of
_,ear and of sorrow from the s___,eetest face _ _ad _.een _o_
many a day. . .

Recognita Standard 3.2.7AK:

~'es, indeed, ~w-as on the track of ltT. Aristide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hauls of enemy goods
"=hich had ever been made in France. ~Tot only that. I
ha~i also before me one of the most brutish criminals it
had ever been my misfortune to come across. A bully-, a
fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertiIe brain was
s; ething w-ith plans for eventually iaying that abominable
ruffian by the heels : hanging ~-ould be a merciful pun-
ishment for such a miscreant. ires, indeed, five thousand
franes-a goodly sum in those days, Sir-was practically
as~ured me. But over and above mere lucre there was
thP certainty that in a few days' time I should see the
light of gratitude shining out of a pair of lustrous btue
ey·es, and a winning smile chasing away the hk of
fear and of sorrow from the sweetest face I had seen for
many a day.

Yes, indeed, l~was on the track of h~i. Aristide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hauls of enemy goods
w~hich had ever been made in France. lVot only that. I
had also before mP one of the most brutish criminals it
had ever been my misfortune to come acrass. A bully, a
fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertile brain was
seething with plans for ez~entually laying that abomin_ able
ruffian by the heels : hanging ~~.-ould be a merciful pun-
ishment for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thousand
f:ancs-a goodly sum in those days, Sir-was practically
assured me. But over and above mere lucre there was
the certainty that in a few days' time I should~ see the
Iight of gratitude shining out of a pair of iEustrous blue
eyes, and a w inning smile chasing away the Iook of
fear and of sorrow from the s"-eetest face ~ had seen ~'or
rr~any a day.

OmniPage Pro 10:

Yes, indeed, twas on the track of 11T. Aristide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hauls of enemy goods
which had ever been made in France. Not only that. I
ha(i also before me one of the most brutish criminals it
had ever been my misfortune to come across. A bully, a
fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertile brain was
seething with plans for eventually laying that abominable
ruffian by the heels: hanging would be a merciful pun-
ishment for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thousand
francs-a goodly sum in those days, Sir-was practically
assured me. But over and above mere lucre there was
the certainty that in a few days' time I should see the
light of gratitude shining out of a pair of lustrous blue
eyes, and a winning smile chasing away the look of
fear and of sorrow from the sweetest face I had seen for
many a day.

Yes, indeed, fwas on the track of h-I. Aristide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hauls of enemy goods
which had ever been made in France. Not only that. I
had also before me one of the most brutish criminals it
had ever been my misfortune to come across. A bully, a
fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertile brain was
seething with plans for eventually laying that abominable
ruffian by the heels: hanging would be a merciful pun-
ishment for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thousand
francs-a goodly sum in those days, Sir-was practically
assured me. But over and above mere lucre there was
the certainty that in a few days' time I should see the
light of gratitude shining out of a pair of lustrous blue
eyes, and a winning smile chasing away the look of
fear and of sorrow from the sweetest face I had seen for
many a day.

OmniPage Pro 11:

Yes, indeed, twas on the track of AT. Aristide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hauls of enemy goods
which had ever been made in France. Not only that. I
had also before me one of the most brutish criminals it
had ever been my misfortune to come across. A bully, a
fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertile brain was
seething with plans for eventually laying that abominable
ruffian by the heels: hanging would be a merciful pun-
ishment for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thousand
francs-a goodly sum in those days, Sir-was practically
assured me. But over and above mere lucre there was
the certainty that in a few days' time I should see the
light of gratitude shining out of a pair of lustrous blue
eyes, and a winning smile chasing away the look of
fear and of sorrow from the sweetest face I had seen for
many a day.

Textbridge Millennium Pro:

Yes, indeed, rwas on the track of M. Aristide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hauls of enemy goods
which had ever been made in France. Not only that. I
hail also before me one of the most brutish criminals it
had ever been my misfortune to come across. A bully, a
fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertile brain was
seething with plans for eventually laying that abominable
ruffian by the heels: hanging would be a merciful pun-
ishment for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thousand
francs-a goodly sum in those days, Sir-was practically
assured me. But over and above mere lucre there was
the certainty that in a few days' time I should see the
light of gratitude shining out of a pair of lustrous blue
eyes, and a winning smile chasing away the look of
fear and of sorrow from the sweetest face I had seen for
many a day. - - -

Yes, indeed, f was on the track of M. Aristide Fournier,
and of one of the most important hauls of enemy goods
which had ever been made in France. Not only that. I
had also before me one of the most brutish criminals it
had ever been my misfortune to come across. A bully, a
fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertile brain was
seething with plans for eventually laying that abominable
ruffian by the heels: hanging would be a merciful pun-
ishment for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thousand
francs-a goodly sum in those days, Sir-was practically
assured me. But over and above mere lucre there was
the certainty that in a few days' time I should see the
light of gratitude shining out of a pair of lustrous blue
eyes, and a winning smile chasing away the look of
fear and of sorrow from the sweetest face I had seen for
manyaday. -

* * * * *

Scan 3--Guttering and Smaller Print

Scan3 is a paragraph from "The Egoist" by George Meredith. It was scanned in a dim room, with the scanner cover open and the book held open, flat against the scanner glass. However, the spine was not pressed firmly enough against the glass, and as a result you can see that the words on the left-hand edge (which were near the spine) appear to be slanted, a bit distorted, and not well lit. This problem is familiar to people who scan for PG--everybody gets distracted sometimes, and fails to keep enough pressure on the spine. As you see from the results below, it caused problems for all of the OCR packages on the words affected. If you find this kind of "guttering" regularly in your own scans, where the characters near the spine are not being recognized correctly by your OCR, you need to make sure that your book is down as flat as possible before making a scan. Because of the smaller size and the guttering problem, the 400dpi scan made for better quality text in this case.

Here's the output from the sample OCR:

Abbyy FineReader 6:

NEITHER Clara nor Vernon appeared at the mid-day table,
n Middleton talked with Miss Dale on classical matters,
like a good-natured giant giving a child the jump from
stone to stone across a brawling mountain ford, so that an
uncdified audience might really suppose, upon seeing her
over the difficulty, she had done something for herself. Sir
\Villoughby was proud of her, and therefore anxious to
soltlo her business while he was in the humour to lose her.
He hoped to finish it by shooting a word or two at Vernon
before dinner. Clara's petition to be set free, released from
him, had vaguely frightened even more than it offended hia
nrido.

NEITHER Clara nor Vernon appeared at the mid-day table.
Dr. Middleton talked with Miss Bale on classical matters,
like a good-natured giant giving a child the jump from
stone to stone across a brawling mountain ford, so that an
unedified audience might really suppose, upon seeing her
over the difficulty, she had done something for herself. Sir
"VVilloughby was proud of her, and therefore anxious to
settle her business while he was in the humour to lose her.
He hoped to finish it by shooting a word or two at Vernon
before dinner. Clara's petition to be set free, released from
him, had vaguely frightened even more than it offended his
pride.

gocr 0.3.6:

__,,,____,_ Cl,_I._c nor Vernon a__e_Ped _t tl_le _id_da_ tab1e_
_, _ii_(__etoiI f,,_lk(;cl with _MiSs _ale _U_1d_ abS8iG_l I_i_t_t_l.__
i,_i,;,_ .,, _(_u_-i,L_t_ii.e(l 6iiLIblt 6'7_V. ill_ _ C 'll . tf e__Ul__b rU_l
gt(),ii_, tu _fj(),I(, ,_uruSS.,__ T__ Illl_ g UlOUUt_lU o_ _ 8O .t _' t_ail
u,,_,_ifj(;il ;,_i((ic,IGG l_i_' lt re_ y 8UE)_OB_'_ U_Oll 8eelll6 lttr
_,__i. t_ic (li__icu1ty, SIIe t1_d iluI_e 8ol_eth_ng_ fo_ be_.Self. _i__
_ji___()_i___lIl)y w,,s prui_il of heT_ and k__eTefope an_iouS to
_(_(.__u l___i. i)i__, ii,ess wIlile he Wa8 in the hU_ouT to luse Iier_
j__ l_()_)(_(l t() tiiIish it b_ ShOOtiltg a WOTd o__ t_O &t Verno_
_o__(),__ (li,_iIci._ Cl__T_'S _eti_tio_ tO be Set fTee_.Te1ea8ecl fro_
)ii))),, lIL_Ll v_b__uely f_.ighteUe eVen _OTe kba_ lt OfEe_ded hi_
pi_i..(l_u- . _ , , --.___ _ _,- - -__-

________ Cl__i.a nop Vernon appeared &t t'h_e _id_day t__le_
D_. _id(lle_oi_ t_lked with Miss _ale ,on _ _Ssi__l __i tt_r_'_
iij_e _ 6ood-n___tLi_.ed 6iai_t 6_i_ing & Ghild the ___np _'_.on_
_tune to _tone aGro_S a braWlin( __ inOU__taiß _foPd_ So t2_at a__
u__p,(_ified ___idiei_Ge _ni62it real y 8uppO.8e_ upon _seeii_6 l_e_
o______ the difhculty_ she had done _o_neth_n6 fop ber_elf_ _i_
_viljoli____k)y w__s proud of heT, and the_efo_e an_iouS to
___.tle li__i. i)u__inesS Whike he W_S î_ the hum'ou_ to_ lose her_
__e l_op(_d to finish it by 8hooting a wopd o_ tWo ak Verno__ _
_eforR_ _(in_icr_ Clara's petition to _ Set _free, releaSed fro_
)ii__, h_d va6uely frigbte_ed eve_ _ore tban it o_e_ded hiD
pi.icle. -. - - - - - '

Recognita Standard 3.2.7AK:

~rFr~rrmx Clara nor Vernon apneared at the mid-da~'table.
Dr. bLidrlleton talkc;d wi.th Miss Dale vn elassieal matters,
like a ~n~a-mZtured giant gi.ving a child th© jucnp frvm
stonc to stone across a brawling mounta,in ford, so that au
uiicilificd .ruciicucc mil;·ht really suppasc, upon seeixig hor
·n~er thc ciillicul.ty, she had clouo something for herself. Sir
~Villcm;;lrlry wvs proua of her, and therefors angiaus to
sct.tla lrur tn~sincss while he was in the humoar to lose her.
lle lu,hcot to iinish it by shooting a word ar two at Vernon
bol'ore ~linncr. Clara's petition to bo set froe, released £rom
JGGnt., hvd vagucly frighteued even more than it offended hia
ri~le.
p

NEITfi~R Clara nor Vernon appeareci at the xnid-day table.
Dr. Middleton talked with Miss Dalo on classics,l rnatters',
like a good-natured giant giving a child the jtimp from
stone to stone across a brawling mountain ford, so that an
unedified audience might really suppose, upon ~ seeing her
over the difficulty, she had done something for herself. Sir
yillon ;hby was proud of her, and therefore anxiotis to
scttle luer business while he w~as in the hurxiour to lose her:
He hoped to finish it by shooting a word or two at Vernon
before dinner. Clara's petition to be set free, released from
jcLm, had vaguely frighteued even more than it offended his
pride.

OmniPage Pro 10:

NF r~rn,Px Clara nor Vernon appeared at the mid-dap table.
Dr. Middleton talked with Miss Dale on classical matter,
like .t good-natured giant giving a child the jump from
stone to stone across a brawling mountain ford, so that an
uneVified audience might really suppose, upon seeing her
over the difficulty, she had done something for herself. Sir
jV;llo,r;;lrl>y was proud of her, and therefore anxious to
set.tlo lror Uusiness while he was in the humour to lose her.
Ile. lropcol to finish it by shooting a word or two at Vernon
bol'ore dinner. Clara's petition to beset free, released from
)zinc, had vaguely frightened even more than it offended his
pride.

NEITHER Clara nor Vernon appeared at the mid-day table.
Dr. Middleton talked with Miss Bale on classical matters',
like a good-natured giant giving a child the jump from
stone to stone across a brawling mountain ford, so that an
unedified audience might really suppose, upon ~ seeing her
over the difficulty, she had done something for herself. Sir
yillou ;hby was proud of her, and therefore anxious to
settle her business while he was in the humour to lose her.
He hoped to finish it by shooting a word or two at Vernon
before dinner. Clam's petition to be set free, released from
him, had vaguely frightened even more than it offended his
pride.

OmniPage Pro 11:

NF f,rnMR Clara nor Vernon appeared at the mid-day table.
Dr. Middleton talked with Miss Dale on classical matters,
like .t good-natared giant giving a child the jump from
stone to stone across a brawling mountain ford, so that an
une(lifie(l audience might really suppose, upon seeing her
over the difficulty, she had done something for herself. Sir
jVillon;hl)y was proud of her, and therefore anxious to
setale leer business while he was in the humour to lose her.
lle hoped to finish it by shooting a word or two at Vernon
bofore dinner. Clara's petition to beset free, released from
)lint, had vaguely frightened even more than it offended his
pride.
-.2 ..1_ - ____

NEITHER Clara nor Vernon appeared at the mid-day table.
Dr. Middleton talked with Miss Dale on classical matters',
like a good-natured giant giving a child the jump from
stone to stone across a brawling mountain ford, so that an
unedified audience might really suppose, upon,seeing her
over the difficulty, she had done something for herself. Sir
Willoughby was proud of her, and therefore anxious to
settle her business while he was in the huniour to lose her.
Il"e hoped to finish it by shooting a word or two at Vernon
before dinner. Clara's petition to be set free, released from
hint, had vaguely frightened even more than it offended his
pride. - -

TextBridge Millennium Pro:

NErr'!'~~ Clara nor Vernon appeared at the mid.day table.
pr. ~1id(lIeto11 talked with Miss Dale on classical matters,
like a good-natured giant giving a child the jump from
stone to stone across a brawling mountain ford, so that au
~1edifi~ tLU(llCIlCC might really suppose, upon seeing her
over the (hjiheulty, she had done something for herself. Sir
wiflouighby was proud of her, and therefore anxious to
settle her business while he was in the humour to lose her.
lie ho1)ed to finish it by shooting a word or two at Vernon
before dinner. Clara's petition to be set free, released from
him, had vaguely frightened even more than it offended his
prú~t~.

NEITHER Clara nor Vernon appeared at the mid-day table.
Pr. Middleton talked with Miss Dale on classical matters,
like a good-natured giant giving a child the jump from
stone to stone across a brawling mountain ford, so that an
une(lified audience might really suppose, upon - seeing her
over the difficulty, she had done something for herself. Sir
Willoughby was proud of her, and therefore anxious to
settle hier l)uSifleSS while he was in the humour to lose her.
lie hoped to finish it by shooting a word or two at Vernon
before dinner. Clara's petition to be set free, released from
hirn~, had vaguely frightened even more than it offended his
pri(le.

* * * * *

Scan 4--A Really Bad Case!

Scan4 is a paragraph from Pope's translation of Homer's "Odyssey". This is a very, very tough one. It was obviously a cheap printing to begin with, using thin, poor-quality paper in a page size of 6" by 4.5", with capital letters about 1.5 mm high, a little bigger than Times New Roman size 8. Text this small really needs a higher-resolution scan. The book was falling apart when I got it, the ink was fading and flaking, and there was no point in even thinking about trying to scan it flat, so I cut the pages. To add an extra challenge, I scanned the sample with the cover open in a medium-lit room for the 300 and 400dpi scans, but closed the cover for the 600dpi to show the best quality I could possibly get. (I was pleased to note that Abbyy, while recognizing the page in the 300dpi and 400dpi images, flashed up a suggestion that I should lower the brightness of the scan.)

This particular book was one I sporadically tried to produce, without success, on an older scanner and a bundled OCR program over a period of two years, back in 98/99. Eventually, in 2000, it was the first book processed through Charles Franks' Distributed Proofreaders site. The initial text produced by the OCR was very poor, but the human volunteers made up for it! Thanks, guys! Today, just two years later, with a better scanner and better OCR, I could have done it myself, as you will see from the best of the results of the 600dpi scans. That's how much things have improved recently.

A separate point to note here is that you can see the "three-quarter space" effect before the exclamation mark and semi-colon that was discussed in [V.104].

The results of the OCR are:

Abbyy FineReader 6:

" Ah me ! on what inhospitable coast,
On Tvh.it new region is Ulysses toss'd ;
Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms ;
Or men. whose bosom tender pity warms ?
What sounds are these that gather from the shores ?
The voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bowers,
The fair-hair'd Pryads of the shady wood ;
Or azure daughters of the silver flood ;
Or human voir-e? but issuing1 from the shades,
AVhv cease I straight to learn what sound invades?"

" Ah me ! on what inhospitable coast,
On what new region is Ulysses toss'd ;
Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms ;
Or men, whose bosom tender pity warms '?
"What sounds are these that gather from the shores ?
The voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bowers,
The fair-hair'd Dryads of the shady wood ;
Or azure daughters of the silver flood ;
Or human voice? but issuing from the shades,
Why cease I straight to learn what sound invades?"

" Ah me ! on what inhospitable coast,
On what new region is Ulysses toss'd ;
Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms ;
Or men, whose bosom tender pity warms ?
"What sounds are these that gather from the shores ?
The voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bowers,
The fair-hair'd*Dryads of the slrady wood ;
Or azure daughters of the silver flood ;
Or human voice? but issuing from the shades,
Why cease I straight to learn what sound invades?"

gocr 0.3.6:

[The 300 and 400 dpi scans produced nothing recognizable.
The result of the 600 dpi scan is below.]

'' _hh i_3e ! o_1 ___l_at_ i__l__sl__ it_nble CoaSt_
On ___l_,__ _)e_v i_e_io__ i__ ___ _._____ses toss'd ;
_(3s3gs3_d l3.__ ___iiíi l3_3__b___i_c_i3_ fie_Ce in il__S- _
Or i11pn, __-i)c3se l_osonl te_1de_ _it____ __ai_n3__ ?
___l_at __o__i1ds Qre tlipse tliat g__tl_p_r fE_oi33 the shoTes ?
'_ilie __oi__e of i)____ E1)l3l3s tl3nT 1i_n__nt the s__l__inn bo_Ye_5_
3'l_e fni___i____ir'd _____-ads of' il_e sli__d__ i___oOd _
Op az(_pe da_____litc__s of _tlie sil __?r t1ood ;
Or l___i31_nn ___)i___? l3__t i3____ii_6 fi_oi11 tlie __hiade__ _
__'!3.__ _ea___e _ s_rai__li.t to l_ar_i1- i_--li__t so_nd- in__ad_S___''

Recognita Standard 3.2.7AK:

.: lh nt"'. on w-hat inlu,;y:t, I,:e co;;~t,
On ~cli^t ne~- re~ion i.. 1= 1-.-:.:e~ tm:'d ;
Possea'd 1n- wil~l L;,rba~:c, .~ fierce in arm~ ;
Or u.~u. w-Ln.e bossum tender pit~- warna'?
~l-u:lt .<,:~;;::;3s are tll~ce that ~atl:er from the shnre~ ?
'I'l.e -;;o'.re :,; nwtthil: tW ,t l:aa;nt the s~-l:c 1llJOR'er5,
'lhe :a,:~-h ~;r'd~It.wa~i~ ot' tl:e ~Il;;dv vood;
Or az.lre dau~~l.ts~: oY tl:c ·:iv-~~r floo;:3 ;
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OmniPage Pro 10:

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Possess'd br wild barbaric ns fierce in arms ;
Or men, whose bosom tender pith- warms
AN-hat sounds are these that gather from the shores ?
The voice of nymphs that Haunt the sylvan bowers,
The fair-hair'd IWvads of the shady -wood ;
Or azure daughters of the silver flood ;
Or human voice? bat iauina from the shades,
Why cease I straight to learn what sound invades?"

" Ah me! on what inhospitable coast,
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Possess'd bv -wild barbarians fierce in arms ;
Or men, whose bosom tender pity warnis ?
AVlia± sounds are these that gatller from the shores
The voice of nYI11pliS that haunt the -sylvan bowers,
The fair -hair'd D.-yads of the shady wood ;
Or azure daughters of the silver flood ;
Or human voice? lout issuing from the shades,
Why cease I straight to learn what sound invades?"

OmniPage Pro 11:

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Possess'd bY Mild barbarians fierce in aims ;
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The voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bowers,
The fair-hair'd D~ yads of the shady -wood
;
Or azure dau.L-hters of the silver flood ;
Or human voice? but issuing from the shades,
Why cease I straight to learn what sound invades?"

" Ah me! on what inhospitable coast,
On what new region is Ulysses toss'd ;
Possess'd by -wild barbarians fierce in arms ;
Or n1en, whose bosom tender pity warnis ?
AVliat sounds are these that gather from the shores
The voice of nyniplis that haunt the sylvan bowers,
The fair-hair'd Dryads of the shady Wood ;
Or azure daughters of the silver flood ;
Or human voice? but issuing from the shades,
Why cease I straight to learn what sound invades?"

TextBridge Millennium Pro:

no on what inhe~ptaEie coast,
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Or men, whose bosom tender pity warms ~
What sounds are these that gather from the shores?
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The fair-baird Prvads of tl~e shady wood
Or azure daughters of the silver flood
Or human vuiae? but issuing fi'om the shades,
Why cease I straigl~t to learn what sound invades?"

Ah me on what inhospitable coast,
On what new region is Ulysses toss'd
Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms
Or men, whose bosom tender pity warms?
What sounds are these that gather from the shores?
rfhe voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bowers,
The fair-hair'd Dtyads of the shady wood;
Or azure daughters of 'the silver flood
Or human voice? but issuing from the shades,
Why cease I straigl~t to learn what sOund invades?"

What can we conclude from this?

Small mistakes in scanning, like letting too much light in, getting your scanner settings wrong for the page, or not pressing the paper flat enough, can make a major difference to the final quality of the text that you will have to correct.

Sometimes, no matter what you do with your scanner, problems with the paper or the print will make it difficult for your OCR package to give good output.

Generally, bigger is better within the range 300dpi-600dpi, but you only need higher resolution with more difficult material.

Different OCR packages will produce widely differing texts from the same images. Given a really good image, most OCR software will work acceptably, but when you have lower quality material to work with, the gap between OCR packages shows clearly.

S.18. I got an OCR package bundled with my scanner. Is it good enough
to use?

That depends on how well your package performs on the actual scans that you do, and how much you value your time vs. money. Most scanners are bundled with OCR software, but these OCR packages are often older or "brain-damaged" versions, with their functionality deliberately lowered. It's unlikely that you'll get a current-version, top-of-the-line OCR package thrown in for free.

You may have to pay extra for better OCR, but it means that you spend less time making corrections. The question is how much better you want your OCR to be.

Save the images from the FAQ "Why am I getting a lot of mistakes in my OCRed text?" [S.17] and try processing them with the OCR you have. Compare the quality of the text produced with the quality of the samples. This should give you some idea of how your OCR compares to others.

Try a few pages from your book with your OCR. How many mistakes do you see on each page? Do you find that acceptable?

S.19. I want to include some images with a HTML version. How should I
scan them?

We don't often see color prints in our books, but if you do have one, then scan it in color. Otherwise, try both greyscale and B&W, and see which gives you the best image.

It's usually better to scan images in a higher resolution than you're going to use, and then use an image manipulation package to reduce them [H.10] to a size appropriate for your HTML file. An initial scan at 600dpi is often good. Image manipulation programs will also allow you to "clean up" the pictures, by increasing contrast, despeckling, or other filtering.

S.20. I want to include some images with a HTML version. What type of
image should I use?

GIF, JPEG and PNG images are supported by current browsers, and you should stick with those unless you have a specific reason not to.

GIF and PNG tend to be more efficient--provide better quality at a given file size--for simple line-drawings; JPEG is usually better for photographic images.

S.21. Will PG store scanned page images of my book?

No. Or, at least, not yet.

The idea has been kicked around a bit. There's no question of replacing etexts with page images, but many volunteers who have already scanned the book anyway like the idea of saving page images as well--for general information, and as a means of checking future correction suggestions against the original. Some volunteers already keep their page images, stored for possible future use.

Working some back-of-the-napkin figures: a page of text might take up 1KB of space on a computer as plain text or HTML or XML. The same page might take 70KB if stored as a black-and-white image, of just enough quality to serve as a reliable guide to making corrections. Pages with pictures, or stored with enough resolution to allow some future researcher to write a paper on the changing shape of serifs in the 18th and 19th centuries, would start at around 350KB per page, and go up from there.

A 300 page book thus becomes

about 300KB as plain text (and around 150K zipped) about 20,000KB as minimal-quality images about 100,000KB as high-quality images

and with the images, we won't save much space on the zipping, because they're already compressed.

On a normal "56K" modem, getting about 4KB / second, it would take:

75 seconds to download the text file (40 for the Zip) 80 minutes to download the minimal images over 5 hours to download the high-res images.

Someday, the disk and bandwidth capacities that we will take for granted will be such that uploading images, when we have them, will be quite natural, just for the few people who will want them. But we're not quite there yet.

Late flash! As of late 2002, the Internet Archive is providing space to volunteers for storing page images. To see the images, and find out more, go to <http://texts01.archive.org/gutenberg-images/>

HTML FAQ

H.1. Can I submit a HTML version of my text?

Yes.

H.2. Why should I make a HTML version?

Well, you can make one just because you want to, but on some texts there is special reason to.

If you want to preserve the pictures that accompany the text, making a HTML version means that you can specify where and how those images appear.

If there is particular meaningful information in the layout of the text that can't be expressed in ASCII, like special characters or complex tables or fonts, HTML may offer an open format alternative.

H.3. Can I submit a HTML version without a plain ASCII version?

You can submit it, but the Posting Team will then consider whether we should also make an ASCII, or perhaps ISO-8859 or Unicode version of it. We really do want our texts to be viewable by everybody, under every circumstances, and we do not want to start posting texts that are in any way inaccessible to anyone.

See also the FAQ [G.17] "Why is PG so set on using Plain Vanilla ASCII?"

H.4. What are the PG rules for HTML texts?

1. The only absolute rule is that the HTML should be valid according to one of the W3C HTML standards.

You can verify that your HTML is valid at the W3C's HTML Validator at <http://validator.w3.org/>

For a more convenient and friendly, though less official, check of the correctness of your HTML, you should use Dave Raggett's Tidy program at <http://tidy.sourceforge.net>, which not only points out any messiness in your HTML code, but also has some neat modes to clean it up and standardize the formatting.

After that, we have some requirements and recommendations. Compliance with the requirements might be waived if there is a really good reason to make an exception in this case.

2. Requirement: File names and extensions

If you want your text to work within 8.3 filename conventions, you may use .htm as the extension for your HTML files; otherwise, use .html as the extension. If you are working to 8.3 conventions, all of your images as well as your HTML files should have 8.3-compliant filenames.

All file names and extensions should be in lower-case throughout. Yes, we know this is not strictly necessary, but we don't want to have to correct every file that comes with "image.gif" referenced in the HTML accompanied by a file IMAGE.GIF.

3. Requirement: HTML and plain-text

Project Gutenberg does publish well-formatted, standards compliant HTML. However, we insist that a plain text version be available for all HTML documents we publish (even if images or formatting are absent), except when ASCII can't reasonably be used at all, for example with Arabic, or mathematical texts.

4. Requirement: Archive format for posting

If the HTML book contains more than one file (including images), create a ZIP (preferable) or TAR archive containing all of the files in the book. The ZIP file may, if you wish, unzip to a subdirectory named for the book. For example, a book called 'The Humour of Mark Twain' might unzip in a directory called 'mthumor'. Make sure directory names contain only alphabetic and numeric characters, no spaces, and are 8 characters or less, even if you're not sticking to 8.3 conventions for filenames.

5. Recommendation: Simplicity

Make your HTML as simple as possible. HTML is an evolving standard, and one that may be completely obsolete in the long term. Use of advanced features may just mean that your version will be obsolete or unreadable that much faster.

6. Recommendation: Images

Images included with your HTML should be in a format that Web browsers can read: GIF, JPEG or PNG. Images should be edited for high quality in a reasonably small file size. Make the best decision you can concerning the image size and placement in the text. Every image included must be linked into (referenced by) the HTML.

7. Recommendation: Line lengths

If it is reasonable to do so, try to wrap paragraphs of text at around the normal PG margin of 70 characters. Ideally, your HTML should be as near as possible identical to your text version except for the HTML tags and entities. People who open your HTML won't all be using browsers, people will need to make corrections, not all editors can handle very long lines, and even with editors that can handle long lines, it's easier to work with short lines.

Apart from these rules and recommendations, we also have a rule about the PG header, but that will normally be handled by the Posting Team. Where your HTML is all in one file, the header text will be inserted within PRE tags in that file. Where the HTML is split into multiple pages, the header will be put into a separate file named index.htm or index.html, and will link to the first page of your HTML.

H.5. Can I use Javascript or other scripting languages in my HTML?

No.

We don't want our readers to have to worry about any potential for malicious or just plain buggy code.

H.6. Should I make my HTML edition all on one page, or split it into
multiple linked pages?

For a typical novel, one page or HTML file is appropriate, but when that single HTML file gets up around 2 megabytes in size, it may be worth considering a split because of the difficulty of loading it in some browsers.

In some other cases, where the content requires different styles on different pages, or different pages need different character sets, or the page, with images, just gets too heavy, you may need to split the HTML even if the HTML itself isn't technically too big.

When we post a HTML eBook containing multiple files, whether they contain text or images, we post them only in zipped format, so if you don't have images, and want your text to be directly accessible, you should stick to one file where possible.

H.7. How can I check that I haven't made mistakes in coding my HTML?

There are two kinds of mistakes you can make in coding HTML: you can produce invalid HTML, or you can produce HTML that doesn't do what you want.

Checking for invalid HTML is straightforward. The W3C site <http://validator.w3.org> will formally validate your file and point out any mistakes, and this is the official standard. However, it is not always convenient to use, especially when you're in a cycle of fix-and-retest. For this, you should try the program Tidy <http://tidy.sourceforge.net>, which runs on your computer, tells you about errors, and has other useful functions as well. Tidy is available for just about every operating system, and there are several Windows utilities that include Tidy. The links on the main Tidy page will lead you to the right version for you. Tidy is fast and friendly, compared to validation over the web, but it is not the last word. The W3C Validator may find formal errors, such as DOCTYPE mismatches with HTML tags or entitles, that Tidy may not. The best solution is to complete your HTML tests using Tidy, and then, when Tidy finds nothing further to gripe about, submit it to <http://validator.w3.org> for the official seal of approval. Please run these checks before submitting your HTML; we can generally fix it for you, but it may take us a lot of work.

Producing HTML that actually does what you want is equally important. If you've converted the eBook from text, you may have created inconsistencies, or closed an italics tag in the wrong place, or used the wrong tag at some points. The only way to check this is by reading through the HTML in a browser.

H.8. Can I submit a HTML or other format of somebody else's text?

Maybe.

This question has several complications. First, you must understand that it is quite possible, even likely, that your HTML file will eventually be overwritten by better information.

The value of a HTML file, as opposed to a plain text file, lies in its ability to capture elements of the original that have been lost in the plain text. A plain text file, using extended character sets like ISO-8859 [V.76] or Unicode [V.77] and _underscores_ for italics, can capture all of the author's intent in almost all cases. Sometimes, images and other important features of the original cannot be captured in plain text alone, but can be captured in HTML, or other markup.

When Michael Hart stopped posting books, in September 2001, we had HTML formats of about 1.6% of all our eBooks. At the end of 2002, that has risen to nearly 11% of all our eBooks. If you have a clearable copy of an existing posted book, with extra features not included in the original plain text, we would encourage you to make a new edition, or version, or format, correcting any errors in the original, and adding any new information not included there.

If, on the other hand, you just want to make a "blind format change"--making your best guess at what the HTML, or other format, layout should be for a book you've never seen, based on the original producer's work--your best bet is to get in touch with the original producer, and ask whether they can supply more material for you to work with. Otherwise, you are at best just rearranging information rather than contributing something new.

A blind format conversion can be done in anything from 2 minutes [R.33] to an hour. It just doesn't make sense for us to keep posting these files when they contain nothing new, and especially when two people may want to convert the same text. It is likely that, at some time in the next couple of years, we will start on a large-scale conversion project, to add some form of markup to all of the existing text files for ease of serving, and having a mish-mash of existing markup styles to deal with at that point won't help either.

H.9. How big can the images be in a HTML file?

The images should be as big as necessary, and no bigger.

Sorry, but there is no clear number to give here. Web page designers sweat blood to save an extra 20K on a page; so should you. If you're an experienced HTML maker, you know this stuff; if you're not, take it as a guideline that you should generally aim to keep your images in the 30K to 50K size range, with occasional forays into 70-80K territory. That's generally big enough for a clear picture, unless you're reproducing fine artwork.

H.10. The images I've scanned are too big for inclusion in HTML.
What can I do about it?

This is a common problem, where images from the book occupy a full or half page. Your images should be of an appropriate size for downloading, and 2 megabytes of high-quality scan per image is not really an appropriate size for most PG texts!

You should reduce the size, and maybe the quality, of the original scan for simple viewing purposes. There is lots of image-manipulation software to do this. For Windows, you might look at the freeware Irfanview, and for both *nix and Windows there is ImageMagick [P.1]. Look for the words "resize" and "resample" in the Help.

Apart from simple converters, which do enough for this purpose, you can also manipulate the images in full imaging creation and editing packages like Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop and The Gimp [P.1].

Different image encoding methods can make a huge difference to the filesize. Any of the packages mentioned above can encode images as GIF, JPEG or PNG, and, particularly for black and white line drawings, these can encode to very different sizes. So, for example, a 60K JPEG may save as a 30K GIF, because the GIF encoding works better for that particular image. Try your images out, and see what works.

When manipulating images, always work from your original. Don't convert your original to a JPEG, and then shrink that and convert it to a GIF. Depending on the format, images may lose definition as they are converted (search for "lossy compression" in your favorite search engine to find out more about this), and they certainly lose definition as they are resized, and you end up with the "imperfect copy of an imperfect copy of an . . ." effect. When you're experimenting, take your original, resize and Save As GIF, then go back to your original, resize and Save As JPG, and so on.

You can also use an image optimizer. These are specialist software programs that try to make image files smaller without sacrificing resolution or detail.

H.11. Can I include decorative images I've made or found?

No.

Please include only the images you got from the book. If you want to make an edition of the book for your own web site, you can of course use whatever you like there, but for PG purposes, we want the book, the whole book, and nothing but the book.

H.12. How can I make a plain text version from a HTML file?

You can edit out the HTML by hand, of course, but there are several easier ways to convert.

You can view the HTML in a browser, Select All text, and just Copy and Paste into your editor. This is easiest, but doesn't handle formatting like tables very well.

You can use the Lynx [P.1] browser to convert your text with the command
lynx -dump myfile.html > myfile.txt

Bruce Guthrie's HTMSTRIP for MS-DOS [P.1] is very configurable.

<http://www.w3.org/Tools/html2things.html> has a list of other HTML to plain text converters.

H.13. How can I make a HTML version from my plain text file?

This is not a course in HTML, but, for most books, you don't really need a course in HTML. Making a HTML format of most books is very easy, and doesn't take long, once you have mastered basic HTML. Let's assume you have your completed PG plain text file ready, and walk through the steps commonly needed to make a HTML version. We'll do this by successive approximation, doing the major things first, and then dealing more and more with the detail.

There are lots of specialized HTML editors out there, but you don't actually need any of them. The same editor that you used to create your text will also create your HTML. HTML is just text, with two types of special instructions added: tags and entities.

A _tag_ is an instruction to the browser, usually to display something with specific rules. Tags are shown within angled brackets: for example, <p> is the instruction to start a new paragraph.

An _entity_ is a named special character that might not be available in your character set. Entities are shown starting with an ampersand "&" and ending with a semi-colon ";" : for example, — is the representation of an em-dash.

I'm marking up a made-up short text as I write these steps, loosely based on the sample page from question [V.121]. You can see the changes made at each stage by looking at the files

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The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002Chapter XI: Strait of Magellan.--Climate of the Southern Coasts (2)

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