ocrd-page-to-alto

Convert PAGE (v. 2019) to ALTO (v. 2.0 - 4.2)

Introduction

This software converts PAGE XML files to the ALTO XML OCR result format. It enables using PAGE XML generating software in a context where ALTO is needed to display the results, i.e. in libraries.

Installation

In a Python virtualenv:

make install     # or pip install .
# or to install from PyPI
pip install ocrd_page_to_alto

Usage

To convert the PAGE XML document example.xml to ALTO:

page-to-alto example.xml > example.alto.xml

You can get an exhaustive list of page-to-alto's many options with --help:

CLI

Usage: page-to-alto [OPTIONS] FILENAME
  Convert PAGE to ALTO
Options:
  -l, --log-level [OFF|ERROR|WARN|INFO|DEBUG|TRACE]
                                  Log level
  --alto-version [4.2|4.1|4.0|3.1|3.0|2.1|2.0]
                                  Choose version of ALTO-XML schema to produce
                                  (older versions may not preserve all
                                  features)
  --check-words / --no-check-words
                                  Check whether PAGE-XML contains any Words
                                  and fail if not
  --check-border / --no-check-border
                                  Check whether PAGE-XML contains Border or
                                  PrintSpace
  --skip-empty-lines / --no-skip-empty-lines
                                  Whether to omit or keep empty lines in PAGE-
                                  XML
  --trailing-dash-to-hyp / --no-trailing-dash-to-hyp
                                  Whether to add a  element if the last
                                  word in a line ends in "-"
  --dummy-textline / --no-dummy-textline
                                  Whether to create a TextLine for regions
                                  that have TextEquiv/Unicode but no TextLine
  --dummy-word / --no-dummy-word  Whether to create a Word for TextLine that
                                  have TextEquiv/Unicode but no Word
  --textequiv-index INTEGER       If multiple textequiv, use the n-th
                                  TextEquiv by @index
  --textequiv-fallback-strategy [raise|first|last]
                                  What to do if nth textequiv isn't available.
                                  'raise' will lead to a runtime error,
                                  'first' will use the first TextEquiv, 'last'
                                  will use the last TextEquiv on the element
  -O, --output-file FILE          Output filename (or "-" for standard output,
                                  the default)
  -h, --help                      Show this message and exit.

To process an OCR-D workspace, use ocrd_fileformat, which uses page-to-alto by default:

ocrd-fileformat-transform -I OCRD-OCR-OUTPUT-PAGE -O OCRD-OCR-OUTPUT-ALTO \
  -P script-args "--dummy-word --no-check-words --no-check-border"

TODO

AlternativeImage
unmappable regions
handle Border
TextStyle
ParagraphStyle
table regions
recursive regions for *Region
Set PAGECLASS from pc:Page/@type #4
Layers / z-level via StructureTag? #4
<SP/>
<HYP/>
rotation
reading order
input PAGE-XML not having words #5
multiple pc:TextEquivs
language
~~script~~ no equivalent in ALTO :(
~~kerning~~ no equivalent in ALTO :(
~~underlineStyle~~ no equivalent in ALTO :(
~~bgColour~~ no equivalent in ALTO :(
~~bgColourRgb~~ no equivalent in ALTO :(
~~reverseVideo~~ no equivalent in ALTO :(
~~xHeight~~ no equivalent in ALTO :(
~~letterSpaced~~ no equivalent in ALTO :(
ProcessingStep
differentiate/select ALTO versions

Metadata

Release files for ocrd-page-to-alto 2.2.12

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for ocrd-page-to-alto 2.2.12
File	Size	Uploaded
ocrd_page_to_alto-2.2.12.tar.gz	20.9 kB	Jul 29, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for ocrd-page-to-alto 2.2.12
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
ocrd_page_to_alto-2.2.12-py3-none-any.whl 19.6 kB Jul 29, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 40.4 kB

Release files / ocrd_page_to_alto-2.2.12.tar.gz

Download URL	ocrd_page_to_alto-2.2.12.tar.gz
Size	20.9 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`b2702274c107c00e4f930d76413cd7e37ca6fb52ea716909c66ba901b1e8e29c`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`0e4a4a49d8fe00f6ecd6bc6af3a08da0e470bd0b81a894bd3d16c12ce30dcc04`
Upload date	Jul 29, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.14`

Provenance

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Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/OCR-D/page-to-alto
Publishing commit: github.com/OCR-D/page-to-alto/tree/3440591f3178c6b2324986567c5000c9a143d797

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/OCR-D/page-to-alto/blob/3440591f3178c6b2324986567c5000c9a143d797/.github/workflows/cd-pypi.yml
Publishing logs: github.com/OCR-D/page-to-alto/actions/runs/30473742988/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: ocrd_page_to_alto-2.2.12.tar.gz
SHA-256 checksum: b2702274c107c00e4f930d76413cd7e37ca6fb52ea716909c66ba901b1e8e29c Verifying attestations

Release files / ocrd_page_to_alto-2.2.12-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	ocrd_page_to_alto-2.2.12-py3-none-any.whl
Size	19.6 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`42b599aa90b7e2ae157d436da647dcf59d7bcfa8d04158039e0a7d742fd11142`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`68444871d36cdc1cc471a1bad89be7a895d00afd514341d26cd2883f1bc63bb7`
Upload date	Jul 29, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.14`

Provenance

Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/OCR-D/page-to-alto
Publishing commit: github.com/OCR-D/page-to-alto/tree/3440591f3178c6b2324986567c5000c9a143d797

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/OCR-D/page-to-alto/blob/3440591f3178c6b2324986567c5000c9a143d797/.github/workflows/cd-pypi.yml
Publishing logs: github.com/OCR-D/page-to-alto/actions/runs/30473742988/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: ocrd_page_to_alto-2.2.12-py3-none-any.whl
SHA-256 checksum: 42b599aa90b7e2ae157d436da647dcf59d7bcfa8d04158039e0a7d742fd11142 Verifying attestations