4 AI Models for Reading Old Norwegian Handwriting and Typewritten Documents

Deciphering historical documents can be a daunting task, especially when faced with old Norwegian handwriting or typewritten texts from centuries past. Luckily, AI models have made significant progress in helping researchers, historians, and genealogists transcribe and understand these invaluable documents.

Whether you’re dealing with elegant script or typewritten letters, these four AI models offer powerful tools for transcribing old Norwegian texts. This post gives an overview of the specifics for each model and explains how they can enhance your transcription and digitisation projects.

1. Danish-Norwegian Handwriting (1874-1891)

Old handwritten documents present a unique challenge, particularly those from the late 19th century. The Danish-Norwegian Handwriting (1874-1891) model is specifically tailored to transcribe the elegant yet sometimes difficult-to-read handwriting from this period. Whether you’re working on family records, church registers, or official correspondence, this model will assist in transforming handwritten documents into digital text with ease.

Key Features:

• Covers handwritten documents from 1874 to 1891.
• Works on both Danish and Norwegian texts, expanding its usefulness for cross-border research.
• Suited for transcription of official correspondence.

Try this model here

2. Danish-Norwegian Typewritten Transcripts (1760-1842)

The Danish-Norwegian Typewritten Transcripts (1760-1842) was trained with 20th-century typewritten transcripts of handwritten letters from 1760-1842. This model is specifically designed to recognise both the typewritten characters as well as handwritten annotations and corrections.

Key Features:

• Covers typewritten documents from the 20th century.
• Optimised for the Norwegian and Danish languages, making it useful across both nations' historical archives.
• Particularly effective for typewritten documents with handwritten corrections.

Try this model here.

3. Norhand v0.7

The Norhand v0.7 model is a versatile tool, offering support for a wide range of handwritten Norwegian documents. Spanning two centuries, this model is highly adaptable and suited for various types of Norwegian handwriting, from everyday correspondence to formal records. It’s an excellent resource for anyone working with a diverse collection of historical Norwegian documents, especially when dealing with different handwriting styles.

Key Features:

• Supports a broad range of Norwegian handwritten documents.
• Particularly useful for research, allowing for the transcription of family records, parish registers, and personal letters.
• Trained on documents from a 120-year timespan, accommodating the changing styles of handwriting over time.

Try this model here.

4. Norwegian Typewriting (1940-1945)

For those dealing with typewritten documents from the early to mid-20th century, the Norwegian Typewriting (1940-1945) model is specifically tuned to this era. This model was trained to transcribe Norwegian documents from the WWII era, making it perfect for historians studying the occupation of Norway, wartime correspondence, or even personal diaries that were typewritten during the war years.

Key Features:

• Best suited for typewritten texts produced between 1940 and 1945.
• Ideal for transcribing wartime documents, official letters, and other texts related to the WWII period in Norway.
• Focuses on Norwegian language in a time of significant political and social upheaval.

Try this model here.

How to use these AI models

Transkribus is an AI-powered platform that converts handwritten and printed historical documents into digital text.

Transkribus uses models such as these to create accurate transcriptions that are tailored to the language, style, and time period of your specific documents.

For more information about how to use AI models within Transkribus, please watch the video below or visit our Help Center.

Want to publish one of your models and share it with the community? You can find out how on this page.