in the of the document.
This is inadequate. It is a common requirement to link,
for instance, a single block of text on an image to
an original transcription, a modernized version of the
transcription, and an editorial note or interpretation.
Similarly, a single
(or in fact any other element) in
the body of a text might conceivably be linked to more
than one ; multiple views of a particular surface
or page might be provided in the facsimile, each with an
equivalent . Finally, IMT version 1 was written
as a Windows application using Borland Delphi. It will
run on Linux using Wine, but there is no simple way to
run it on a Macintosh computer.
Nevertheless, IMT version 1 has a number of
strengths. As a compiled desktop application,
using a very sophisticated open-source graphics
library (Graphics32), it can to do high-quality
resampling of images on-the-fly, enabling effective
and rapid zooming of high-resolution images. Most
file operations are very fast, and the interface itself is
simple and relatively easy to use. For Windows and
Linux users, it is easy to download and install.
The desktop version of IMT 2 is being written
using Nokia's QT Creator tools. This will enable us
to compile the application for Windows, Mac and
Linux. Our intention is to build on the strengths of
version 1 -- in particular, the speed and efficiency of
graphics handling and file i/o, and the user-friendliness
and simplicity of the interface -- while adding three
important improvements:
1. Handling of an unlimited number of images.
2. Many-to-many linking between s and any
elements with @xml:id attributes in the
section of the file.
3. Support for polygonal zones.
These screenshots of early development pilots show
how we envisage the user interface.
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Digital Humanities 2011
so that corrections and changes can be made without
moving the file back into an XML editor.
The first shows the main window, with multiple folios
(pages) listed down the left side. Clicking on a folio
shows the corresponding image, and the polygonal
zones defined on that image (in red). The selected
zone has draggable circular nodes at all of its corners.
The context menu for the selected zone is displayed,
showing that the zone is linked to three different
elements in the .
The second screenshot shows the corresponding
dialog box, where the user can select an element in
the of the TEI file for linking to a zone. Three
views of the file are available: the first is a read-only
syntax-highlighted text view, the second consists of a
list of all the @xml:id attributes in the file, along with a
text box which can be used to filter them, and the third
is an “outline” or tree view of the file. The user could
use any of these to find and select an element to be
linked to a zone. In addition, the user will be able to
edit any element in the of the TEI file directly, to
add transcription, markup, @xml:id attributes, etc. We
do not envisage that the majority of XML editing will be
done in the Image Markup Tool itself; rather, the base
transcription would be done using an XML editor such
as oXygen, and the file brought into the IMT for the
definition and linking of images and zones. However, it
will be important to allow direct editing of the XML code
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The web platform of the Image Markup Tool fills a
gap in current collaborative editing models, and will
provide a lightweight “edit-anywhere” version of the
desktop application. The web-platform will be built
for a large population of needs, but our first usercase study will be the Editing Modernism in Canada
Project (EMiC).7 Rather than following past practices
of transcribing texts and marking up transcriptions
in the creation of electronic texts, EMiC and its
partners will pioneer image-based editing, semantic
markup, analysis, and visualization of texts in a field of
emergent practices in digital-humanities scholarship.
Instead of producing reading environments based
on linear-discursive transcriptions of texts, EMiC will
produce in collaboration with its partners techniques
and technologies for encoding and interpreting the
complex relations among large collections of visual
and audial objects in non-linear reading environments.
Our rationale for a web-based browser application
includes facilitating RESTful architecture and
interoperability with other systems via API (including,
for example, Scripto,8 developed at the Centre for
History for New Media at George Mason University).
The IMT web-platform will allow a user to load images
and XML documents into a browser window (either
locally or via URL). The drawing and linking of the
polygonal s now supported in the TEI schema
are made possible with the HTML5