From d75527f7eecc4e2fcdd18ab157412506717c8adb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: navanchauhan Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2022 23:36:11 -0700 Subject: add blog post --- Content/posts/2022-11-07-a-new-method-to-blog.md | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Content/posts/2022-11-07-a-new-method-to-blog.md (limited to 'Content/posts/2022-11-07-a-new-method-to-blog.md') diff --git a/Content/posts/2022-11-07-a-new-method-to-blog.md b/Content/posts/2022-11-07-a-new-method-to-blog.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d419a0f --- /dev/null +++ b/Content/posts/2022-11-07-a-new-method-to-blog.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +date: 2022-11-07 23:29 +description: Writing posts in markdown using pen and paper +tags: Python, OCR, Microsoft Azure +--- + +# A new method to blog + +[Paper Website](https://paperwebsite.com) is a service that lets you build a website with just pen and paper. I am going to try and replicate the process. + +## The Plan +The continuity feature on macOS + iOS lets you scan PDFs directly from your iPhone. I want to be able to scan these pages and automatically run an Automator script that takes the PDF and OCRs the text. Then I can further clean the text and convert from markdown. + +## Challenges + +I quickly realised that the OCR software I planned on using could not detect my shitty handwriting accurately. I tried using ABBY Finereader, Prizmo and OCRMyPDF. (Abby Finereader and Prizmo support being automated by Automator). + +Now, I could either write neater, or use an external API like Microsoft Azure + +## Solution + +### OCR + +In the PDFs, all the scans are saved as images on a page. I extract the image and then send it to Azure's API. + +### Paragraph Breaks +The recognised text had multiple lines breaking in the middle of the sentence, Therefore, I use what is called a [pilcrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilcrow) to specify paragraph breaks. But, rather than trying to draw the normal pilcrow, I just use the HTML entity `¶` which is the pilcrow character. + +## Where is the code? +I created a [GitHub Gist](https://gist.github.com/navanchauhan/5fc602b1e023b60a66bc63bd4eecd4f8) for a sample Python script to take the PDF and print the text + +A more complete version with Auomator scripts and an entire publishing pipeline will be available as a GitHub and Gitea repo soon. + +** In Part 2, I will discuss some more features ** -- cgit v1.2.3