Mangling English: an occasional rant

Businesses that don't bother checking their websites, journalists who write gibberish and balderdash, professionals who can't take the extra time and effort to spell-check and proofread, newspapers that turn tragedy into farce through solecisms, plus the odd guide to solving common grammatical difficulties… Contributions and suggestions welcome. (… Also corrections if required, obviously!) Send to: manglingenglishATgmxDOTcom, stating your nom de mangle (if desired).

Showing posts with label optical character recognition (OCR). Show all posts

Saturday, 27 September 2014

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 57

Diagnosis: optical character recognition followed by inadequate proofreading?

Source: Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings, ed. by Stephen Priest (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 181. Note: reprinted 2005 with slightly different layout and mangle!)

Jack for lack

Monday, 28 January 2013

Not Washed or Cooked, # 6

Someone must have been paid to take the time to scan this in, run Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, save the file, and upload the result:

Link: HRVH Historical Newspapers, Southeastern New York Library Resources Council

Why, though? Never mind 'not 100% accurate': what possible use is the result to anyone?

With all the material there must be to archive, surely it's better just scan the original and upload it. This works:

Link: HRVH Historical Newspapers, Southeastern New York Library Resources Council, 2