Type of page	What happens	What you see
Typewrittenbusiness correspondence, reports, 1900–1970	Transcribed and translated, layout kept, including tables in columns.	The text, page by page, original and translated.
Printedperiodicals, brochures, catalogues	Transcribed and translated; figures are cut out and put back in the text in place.	The text with its illustrations, and the reference read at the foot of the page.
Gothic scriptFraktur, German printed matter before 1941	Transcribed; quality depends more on how sharp the photo is than on the typeface.	The text, with doubtful words left as read — not silently corrected.
Double-page spreadan open book photographed in one shot	Read as a single page: both sides, in order.	One piece of text, the left page then the right.
Blank verso, near-empty page	Recognised as such; no text is invented.	A “verso” status, a page that doesn’t waste your time.
Manuscriptletters, marginal notes, handwritten forms	Transcribed and translated. An extra-strength reread, with our most precise model, reads cursive writing in the common European languages and the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek alphabets.	The text, next to the straightened photo. As with any transcription, a proper name is checked at a glance.

How manuscript is read

A page recognised as manuscript goes through an extra-strength reread, with our most precise model: it reads cursive writing, in the common European languages and the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek alphabets. As with any transcription, a proper name or date is checked at a glance against the photo, displayed next to the text. Kurrent and Sütterlin are read the same way (the guide); what makes a transcription good, and how to check it: reliability; the trade’s vocabulary: OCR and HTR.

What helps, what hinders

A sharp, flat photo

Reading depends first on the photo. The photographing guide fits in six rules.

Crooked is fine

A page turned a quarter or half-turn is put the right way up before reading; a page tilted by a few degrees is read as it is, with no loss.

Languages

The European languages — German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Russian and others — in the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, are transcribed in their own language and translated into yours.

See it on your own pages

A hundred pages transcribed and translated, for a year, no card required.

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