metadata

title: Historical OCR
emoji: 📜
colorFrom: blue
colorTo: purple
sdk: streamlit
sdk_version: 1.44.1
app_file: app.py
pinned: false
license: gpl-3.0
short_description: advanced OCR application for historical document analysis

Historical OCR

An advanced OCR application for historical document analysis using Mistral AI.

Note: This tool is designed to assist scholars in historical research by extracting text from challenging documents. While it may not achieve 100% accuracy for all materials, it serves as a valuable research aid for navigating historical documents, particularly historical newspapers, handwritten documents, and photos of archival materials.

Features

OCR with Context: AI-enhanced OCR optimized for historical documents
Document Type Detection: Automatically identifies handwritten letters, recipes, scientific texts, and more
Advanced Image Preprocessing:
- Automatic deskewing to correct document orientation
- Smart thresholding with Otsu and adaptive methods
- Morphological operations to clean up text
- Document-type specific optimization
Custom Prompting: Tailor the AI analysis with document-specific instructions
Structured Output: Returns organized, structured information based on document type

Using This App

Upload a historical document (image or PDF)
Add optional context or special instructions
Get detailed, structured OCR results with historical context

Supported Document Types

Handwritten letters and correspondence
Historical recipes and cookbooks
Travel accounts and exploration logs
Scientific papers and experiments
Legal documents and certificates
Historical newspaper articles
General historical texts

Technical Details

Built with Streamlit and Mistral AI's OCR and large language model capabilities.

Created by Zach Muhlbauer, CUNY Graduate Center