Image to XML (img2xml)

FAIN: HD-50601-09

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1350)
Natalia N. Smith (Project Director: October 2008 to February 2012)
Hugh Cayless (Co Project Director: October 2008 to February 2012)

Development an open-source transcription and annotation tool using Scalable Vector Graphics for historical and literary archival manuscripts, using materials from the Carolina Digital Library and Archives as a test bed.

The img2xml ("image to XML") project plans to develop a 100% Open Source set of components for the linking and display of manuscript images, transcriptions and annotations. The linking will be based on a Scaleable Vector Graphics (SVG) tracing of the text in the manuscript image, which will then be analyzed and displayed via a web browser interface using tools developed for web-based map viewing. This means that links can be made to and from a graphical representation of the actual text on the page rather than a box drawn around it. The proposed approach will enable linking between text and image in a more fine-grained way than any annotation tool currently in existence. This work represents a fundamentally different way of connecting manuscript images with transcriptions and annotations.