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<h1>A new method to blog</h1>
<p><em><a rel="noopener" target="_blank" href="/assets/pdfs/2022-11-07-a-new-way-to-blog.pdf">Here</a> is the original PDF. I made some edits to the content after generating the markdown file</em></p>
<p><a rel="noopener" target="_blank" href="https://paperwebsite.com">Paper Website</a> is a service that lets you build a website with just pen and paper. I am going to try and replicate the process.</p>
<h2>The Plan</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Challenges</h2>
<p>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).</p>
<p>Now, I could either write neater, or use an external API like Microsoft Azure</p>
<h2>Solution</h2>
<h3>OCR</h3>
<p>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. </p>
<h3>Paragraph Breaks</h3>
<p>The recognised text had multiple lines breaking in the middle of the sentence, Therefore, I use what is called a <a rel="noopener" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilcrow">pilcrow</a> to specify paragraph breaks. But, rather than trying to draw the normal pilcrow, I just use the HTML entity <code>&#182;</code> which is the pilcrow character. </p>
<h2>Where is the code?</h2>
<p>I created a <a rel="noopener" target="_blank" href="https://gist.github.com/navanchauhan/5fc602b1e023b60a66bc63bd4eecd4f8">GitHub Gist</a> for a sample Python script to take the PDF and print the text </p>
<p>A more complete version with Auomator scripts and an entire publishing pipeline will be available as a GitHub and Gitea repo soon.</p>
<p><em>* In Part 2, I will discuss some more features *</em> </p>
<blockquote>If you have scrolled this far, consider subscribing to my mailing list <a href="https://listmonk.navan.dev/subscription/form">here.</a> You can subscribe to either a specific type of post you are interested in, or subscribe to everything with the "Everything" list.</blockquote>
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