Automatic correction of errors in Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) output poses persistent challenges yet to be fully resolved. In this study, we introduce a shared task aimed at addressing this challenge, which attracted 271 submissions, yielding only a handful of promising approaches. This paper presents the datasets, the most effective methods, and an experimental analysis in error-correcting HTRed manuscripts and papyri in Byzantine Greek, the language that followed Classical and preceded Modern Greek. By using recognised and transcribed data from seven centuries, the two best-performing methods are compared, one based on a neural encoder-decoder architecture and the other based on engineered linguistic rules. We show that the recognition error rate can be reduced by both, up to 2.5 points at the level of characters and up to 15 at the level of words, while also elucidating their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Handwritten text recognition (HTR) yields textual output that comprises errors, which are considerably more compared to that of recognised printed (OCRed) text. Post-correcting methods can eliminate such errors but may also introduce errors. In this study, we investigate the issues arising from this reality in Byzantine Greek. We investigate the properties of the texts that lead post-correction systems to this adversarial behaviour and we experiment with text classification systems that learn to detect incorrect recognition output. A large masked language model, pre-trained in modern and fine-tuned in Byzantine Greek, achieves an Average Precision score of 95%. The score improves to 97% when using a model that is pre-trained in modern and then in ancient Greek, the two language forms Byzantine Greek combines elements from. A century-based analysis shows that the advantage of the classifier that is further-pre-trained in ancient Greek concerns texts of older centuries. The application of this classifier before a neural post-corrector on HTRed text reduced significantly the post-correction mistakes.

Today classicists are provided with a great number of digital tools which, in turn, offer possibilities for further study and new research goals. In this paper we explore the idea that old Greek handwriting can be machine-readable and consequently, researchers can study the target material fast and efficiently. Previous studies have shown that Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) models are capable of attaining high accuracy rates. However, achieving high accuracy HTR results for Greek manuscripts is still considered to be a major challenge. The overall aim of this paper is to assess HTR for old Greek manuscripts. To address this statement, we study and use digitized images of the Oxford University Bodleian Library Greek manuscripts. By manually transcribing 77 images, we created and present here a new dataset for Handwritten Paleographic Greek Text Recognition. The dataset instances were organized by establishing as a leading factor the century to which the manuscript and hence the image belongs. Experimenting then with an HTR model we show that the error rate depends on the century of the image.