Reading Order Article Coherence Toolbox

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Installation

Required python version is 3.11. Consider use of pyenv if that python version is not available on your system.

Activate virtual environment (virtualenv):

source venv/bin/activate

or (pyenv):

pyenv activate my-python-3.11-virtualenv

Update pip:

pip install -U pip

Install RAC:

pip install git+https://github.com/qurator-spk/RAC.git

Workflow

• compile-article-separation-gt
• extract-article-separation
• match-article-sequences
• compute-rac
• evaluate-article-matching
• download-w3c-annotation-images
• Annotationtool

See also Makefile.

graph TD
    W3C-ANNO-JSON[W3C-ANNO-JSON file created with Annotationtool] --> COMPILE-ARTICLE-SEPARATION([compile-article-separation-gt])
    COMPILE-ARTICLE-SEPARATION --> ARTICLE-POLYGON-TSV(ARTICLE-POLYGON-TSV)
    PAGE-XML-ARTICLE-ID["Directory with PAGE-XML files that have TextRegion-XML elements and Article-ID attributes in NewsEye style"] --> EXTRACT-ARTICLE-SEPARATION([extract-article-separation])
    EXTRACT-ARTICLE-SEPARATION --> ARTICLE-POLYGON-TSV
    ARTICLE-POLYGON-TSV --> MATCH-ARTICLE-SEQUENCE([match-article-sequence])
    MATCH-ARTICLE-SEQUENCE --> MATCHING-FILE(Matching file)
    PAGE-XML-LAYOUT-READING_ORDER(Directory with PAGE-XML files that have a reading order) --> MATCH-ARTICLE-SEQUENCE
    MATCHING-FILE --> COMPUTE-RAC([compute-rac]) 
    ARTICLE-POLYGON-TSV --> COMPUTE-RAC
    COMPUTE-RAC --> RAC-CSW(RAC-CSW Table)
    W3C-ANNO-JSON --> DOWNLOAD-W3C-ANNOTATION-IMAGES(download-w3c-annotation-images)
    DOWNLOAD-W3C-ANNOTATION-IMAGES --> IMAGE-DIR(Directory containing the images referenced in the W3C-ANNO-JSON)

    MATCHING-FILE --> EVALUATE-ARTICLE-MATCHING([evaluate-article-matching]) 
    ARTICLE-POLYGON-TSV --> EVALUATE-ARTICLE-MATCHING
    EVALUATE-ARTICLE-MATCHING --> EVALUATION-REPORT[Evaluation report]
     

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Publication

Labusch, K., Baierer, K., Bubula, M., Götze, J., Lehmann, J., Neudecker, C. (2026). Reading Order Article Coherence Dataset and Measure for Quality Assessment in Historical Newspapers. In Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Historical Document Imaging and Processing (HIP '26). Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, Cham.

Dataset

Reading Order Article Coherence Dataset.