How can I convert a document from 'Old German' (Fraktur) to Modern German?

Try Transkribus and their ‘Super Models’ like German Genius or The Text Titan I. It is an online/cloud service with a user-friendly interface.

If you prefer open-source or local solutions, here are some alternatives:

  • OCR4all (Local software): Developed by the University of Würzburg. It is a desktop application you install locally (usually via Docker) that uses the Calamari engine for historical scripts.
  • TrOCR via Hugging Face (Online or Local): Specialized models from the University of Bern. You can test them directly in your web browser on Hugging Face, or run them locally if you have a Python/AI setup.
  • eScriptorium (Self-hosted/Server): An open-source platform where you can set up your own local server to process documents using the Kraken OCR engine.
  • UB Mannheim / Tesseract (Local software): The University Library of Mannheim maintains the Windows installers for Tesseract. This is a command-line tool you install on your PC, best suited for printed Fraktur rather than handwriting.