<p>Unfortunately, most OCR software still has trouble dealing with this type of 'non-standard' typeface.  In my experience, Chinese that is not in one of the standard computer fonts always comes out with significantly more errors than roman lettered texts. Premodern printed works come off especially badly, so unless someone has made this particularly book the subject of a major project, I doubt there is anything useful out there. Let me know if you find something!</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-04-25T15:40:35.703Z
2017-04-25T15:40:35.703Z
wpt
<p>Archive.org has a really pristine scan of <a href="https://archive.org/details/westernmandarino00grairich" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;Western Mandarin, or, The spoken language of western China&quot;</a> by Grainger, Adam.</p>
<p>It's great. It really is.</p>
<p>It is completely comprised of &quot;photos&quot;, though, only. So, not really searchable, aside from a <em>Radical Index</em>, if you get your thrills in the futility of stroke order.</p>
<p>The &quot;<a href="https://archive.org/stream/westernmandarino00grairich/westernmandarino00grairich_djvu.txt" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Full Text</a>&quot; and &quot;ePub&quot; options on archive.org are awful.</p>
<p>E.g.:
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/T7Dww.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/T7Dww.png" alt="example" /></a></p>
<p>and the &quot;Full Text&quot; version:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>^ T and P? T</p>
<p>servants and door keepers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There must be a good OCR of this pdf, no?</p>

<writing>
Does a good OCR of "Western Mandarin, or, The spoken language of western China" by Grainger, Adam exist?
# Does a good OCR of "Western Mandarin, or, The spoken language of western China" by Grainger, Adam exist?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-04-24)

Archive.org has a really pristine scan of ["Western Mandarin, or, The spoken language of western China"](https://archive.org/details/westernmandarino00grairich) by Grainger, Adam.

It's great. It really is.

It is completely comprised of "photos", though, only. So, not really searchable, aside from a *Radical Index*, if you get your thrills in the futility of stroke order.

The "[Full Text](https://archive.org/stream/westernmandarino00grairich/westernmandarino00grairich_djvu.txt)" and "ePub" options on archive.org are awful.

E.g.:
[![example](https://i.sstatic.net/T7Dww.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/T7Dww.png)

and the "Full Text" version:

> ^ T and P? T
>
> servants and door keepers.

There must be a good OCR of this pdf, no?

**Tags:** writing


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-04-25. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Unfortunately, most OCR software still has trouble dealing with this type of 'non-standard' typeface. In my experience, Chinese that is not in one of the standard computer fonts always comes out with significantly more errors than roman lettered texts. Premodern printed works come off especially badly, so unless someone has made this particularly book the subject of a major project, I doubt there is anything useful out there. Let me know if you find something!


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