What role does proofing play in Project Gutenberg?
A very big one! Typists’ work doesn’t usually need many corrections, but unfortunately, scanners and OCR packages are far from perfect, and scanned text varies from “almost-right” down to “maybe I should consider typing instead of scanning”. Proofing is the process that turns a scan into a readable e-text. Proofing a typist’s work is straightforward; you just read it, and keep an eye out for mistakes. Typists typically have few mistakes in their texts, but the errors that they do make tend to be hard to spot. Proofing OCRed text has its quirks, and you can expect many, many errors to correct. The only thing that all proofers agree on is to differ in their methods. Some people scan and almost complete the proofing process within their OCR package, others do no editing at all within their OCR. Some spell-check first, others spell-check last. Some work through in one pass, doggedly line by line, others make several light passes. Some start at the end and work backwards! Some proofers mark
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