Rainer Simon
@aboutgeo.bsky.social
A collector of things worth knowing and things not worth knowing. Freelance software developer. Web/UI/Maps/Visualization/Image Annotation/Open Source. https://rainersimon.io
🎉 IMMARKUS 1.0.5 is out! The latest release of our open-source image annotation tool for humanities, heritage & museum professionals is now available – with bug fixes, productivity enhancements, and improved #IIIF annotation import.
Try it here: immarkus.xmarkus.org
Docs: github.com/rsimon/immar...
Try it here: immarkus.xmarkus.org
Docs: github.com/rsimon/immar...
November 25, 2025 at 6:58 AM
🎉 IMMARKUS 1.0.5 is out! The latest release of our open-source image annotation tool for humanities, heritage & museum professionals is now available – with bug fixes, productivity enhancements, and improved #IIIF annotation import.
Try it here: immarkus.xmarkus.org
Docs: github.com/rsimon/immar...
Try it here: immarkus.xmarkus.org
Docs: github.com/rsimon/immar...
The #MachinaEmblematica – our mysterious chatbot guide into the 16th century encyclopedia "Symbola et Emblemata" is now reasonably mobile-friendly.
Check it out if you haven't already!
machina.rainersimon.io
Check it out if you haven't already!
machina.rainersimon.io
November 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
The #MachinaEmblematica – our mysterious chatbot guide into the 16th century encyclopedia "Symbola et Emblemata" is now reasonably mobile-friendly.
Check it out if you haven't already!
machina.rainersimon.io
Check it out if you haven't already!
machina.rainersimon.io
We built #MachinaEmblematica as an outreach/engagement tool rather than for research. But as someone with zero knowledge of 16C emblem books (or Latin!) I find it an amazing way to poke around & discover odd new things—far richer than randomly browsing #IIIF images alone.
machina.rainersimon.io
machina.rainersimon.io
November 21, 2025 at 5:49 PM
We built #MachinaEmblematica as an outreach/engagement tool rather than for research. But as someone with zero knowledge of 16C emblem books (or Latin!) I find it an amazing way to poke around & discover odd new things—far richer than randomly browsing #IIIF images alone.
machina.rainersimon.io
machina.rainersimon.io
@rockettara.bsky.social and I've been teaching the #MachinaEmblematica some new tricks: better image interpretation and conversational context, smarter source retrieval from the Symbola et Emblemata. It’s a bit slower now… we’ll work on that next. 😉
Try it here: machina.rainersimon.io
Try it here: machina.rainersimon.io
November 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
@rockettara.bsky.social and I've been teaching the #MachinaEmblematica some new tricks: better image interpretation and conversational context, smarter source retrieval from the Symbola et Emblemata. It’s a bit slower now… we’ll work on that next. 😉
Try it here: machina.rainersimon.io
Try it here: machina.rainersimon.io
text-annotator-js – our JavaScript library for text and PDF annotation – is looking for a new name.
Something shorter, nicer and more memorable. (Current favourite: "leuchtmarker" – German for "highlighter pen".) Got ideas? Drop them below!
github.com/recogito/tex...
Something shorter, nicer and more memorable. (Current favourite: "leuchtmarker" – German for "highlighter pen".) Got ideas? Drop them below!
github.com/recogito/tex...
Better Project Name · Issue #238 · recogito/text-annotator-js
The name "Recogito Text Annotator" was actually meant as a temporary working title. As always with working titles, it stuck... IMO it's both land and a bit too verbose. Also: it's currently under t...
github.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:00 AM
text-annotator-js – our JavaScript library for text and PDF annotation – is looking for a new name.
Something shorter, nicer and more memorable. (Current favourite: "leuchtmarker" – German for "highlighter pen".) Got ideas? Drop them below!
github.com/recogito/tex...
Something shorter, nicer and more memorable. (Current favourite: "leuchtmarker" – German for "highlighter pen".) Got ideas? Drop them below!
github.com/recogito/tex...
Our #MachinaEmblematica has a few quirks. But if you ask for specifics of a particular page or emblem, I feel that the multimodal model generates pretty useful responses!
machina.rainersimon.io
machina.rainersimon.io
November 18, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Our #MachinaEmblematica has a few quirks. But if you ask for specifics of a particular page or emblem, I feel that the multimodal model generates pretty useful responses!
machina.rainersimon.io
machina.rainersimon.io
Side-project announcement! @rockettara.bsky.social and I built a machine that never existed… to read a book from 1590. Meet the #MachinaEmblematica, a chatbot for exploring the Symbola et Emblemata. machina.rainersimon.io
November 14, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Side-project announcement! @rockettara.bsky.social and I built a machine that never existed… to read a book from 1590. Meet the #MachinaEmblematica, a chatbot for exploring the Symbola et Emblemata. machina.rainersimon.io
Trying a new approach to my overlapping annotations problem:
• No more stacked underlines
• Instead, overlaps get small start markers
• Exact overlaps show a tiny count number
• Color density still hints at overlap
Try it live: dense-annotations.netlify.app
One caveat… see next post 👇
• No more stacked underlines
• Instead, overlaps get small start markers
• Exact overlaps show a tiny count number
• Color density still hints at overlap
Try it live: dense-annotations.netlify.app
One caveat… see next post 👇
November 5, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Trying a new approach to my overlapping annotations problem:
• No more stacked underlines
• Instead, overlaps get small start markers
• Exact overlaps show a tiny count number
• Color density still hints at overlap
Try it live: dense-annotations.netlify.app
One caveat… see next post 👇
• No more stacked underlines
• Instead, overlaps get small start markers
• Exact overlaps show a tiny count number
• Color density still hints at overlap
Try it live: dense-annotations.netlify.app
One caveat… see next post 👇
Here's my main dilemma with overlapping text annotations: Underlines become a mess once you stack more than three. At the same time, there's really no way around them if you want to show where overlap starts and ends.
I guess the Q is how/when to drop underlines without losing too much information?
I guess the Q is how/when to drop underlines without losing too much information?
November 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Here's my main dilemma with overlapping text annotations: Underlines become a mess once you stack more than three. At the same time, there's really no way around them if you want to show where overlap starts and ends.
I guess the Q is how/when to drop underlines without losing too much information?
I guess the Q is how/when to drop underlines without losing too much information?
Task for today: brainstorming better ways to visualize heavily annotated text. The more I think about it, the harder it gets...
• Partial overlaps → clutter & a11y issues
• Exact overlaps → even worse
• Stacked underlines → work great... until they don't.
Seen elegant solutions? I’d love to chat!
• Partial overlaps → clutter & a11y issues
• Exact overlaps → even worse
• Stacked underlines → work great... until they don't.
Seen elegant solutions? I’d love to chat!
November 4, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Task for today: brainstorming better ways to visualize heavily annotated text. The more I think about it, the harder it gets...
• Partial overlaps → clutter & a11y issues
• Exact overlaps → even worse
• Stacked underlines → work great... until they don't.
Seen elegant solutions? I’d love to chat!
• Partial overlaps → clutter & a11y issues
• Exact overlaps → even worse
• Stacked underlines → work great... until they don't.
Seen elegant solutions? I’d love to chat!
Reposted by Rainer Simon
Check out this amazing project so many of us at Performant Software have been working on for the past couple of years. We can't wait for the launch and for everyone to see it!
The world premiere of Native Bound Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery will be streamed live on YouTube this weekend.
Watch live:
Day 1 (NHCC - Albuquerque) www.youtube.com/live/xiA5Mp_...
Day 2 (MIAC - Santa Fe)
www.youtube.com/live/5r-vWjG...
Follow @natboundunbound for updates and links.
Watch live:
Day 1 (NHCC - Albuquerque) www.youtube.com/live/xiA5Mp_...
Day 2 (MIAC - Santa Fe)
www.youtube.com/live/5r-vWjG...
Follow @natboundunbound for updates and links.
October 31, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Check out this amazing project so many of us at Performant Software have been working on for the past couple of years. We can't wait for the launch and for everyone to see it!
Reposted by Rainer Simon
Had the chance to join a workshop on image annotation in IMMARKUS led by @hildedw.bsky.social, Rainer Simon, Sunkyu Lee, and Dawn Zhuang today. This was great fun and definitely a tool I will use when working with visual media and texts in the future! #digitalhumanities
October 23, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Had the chance to join a workshop on image annotation in IMMARKUS led by @hildedw.bsky.social, Rainer Simon, Sunkyu Lee, and Dawn Zhuang today. This was great fun and definitely a tool I will use when working with visual media and texts in the future! #digitalhumanities
We’re improving accessibility in the Recogito Text Annotator, our open source text annotation library.
Keyboard support is solid, but highlights aren’t directly tied to the text. They're a floating layer above it, breaking screen reader access. If you’ve faced similar a11y issues, I’d love to chat!
Keyboard support is solid, but highlights aren’t directly tied to the text. They're a floating layer above it, breaking screen reader access. If you’ve faced similar a11y issues, I’d love to chat!
October 22, 2025 at 1:14 PM
We’re improving accessibility in the Recogito Text Annotator, our open source text annotation library.
Keyboard support is solid, but highlights aren’t directly tied to the text. They're a floating layer above it, breaking screen reader access. If you’ve faced similar a11y issues, I’d love to chat!
Keyboard support is solid, but highlights aren’t directly tied to the text. They're a floating layer above it, breaking screen reader access. If you’ve faced similar a11y issues, I’d love to chat!
Arrows between annotations - a recurring feature request I’ve revisited a few times. Building yet another version in a current project:
• Hand-drawn (no auto layout)
• Can snap to annotations - or not
• Works as both a visual tool & a semantic/data-model link
This feels like the nicest version yet!
• Hand-drawn (no auto layout)
• Can snap to annotations - or not
• Works as both a visual tool & a semantic/data-model link
This feels like the nicest version yet!
October 10, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Arrows between annotations - a recurring feature request I’ve revisited a few times. Building yet another version in a current project:
• Hand-drawn (no auto layout)
• Can snap to annotations - or not
• Works as both a visual tool & a semantic/data-model link
This feels like the nicest version yet!
• Hand-drawn (no auto layout)
• Can snap to annotations - or not
• Works as both a visual tool & a semantic/data-model link
This feels like the nicest version yet!
New in #IMMARKUS: when you import a #IIIF manifest, IMMARKUS now imports existing annotations (embedded or referenced) into your workspace.
We'd love to test with real-world examples. If you know of IIIF collections with annotations, let us know. Annotated manifests still seem rare in the wild...
We'd love to test with real-world examples. If you know of IIIF collections with annotations, let us know. Annotated manifests still seem rare in the wild...
October 1, 2025 at 10:31 AM
And while we're at it: the Recogito PDF Annotator – our open source library for interactive PDF annotation in the browser – finally has docs, too!
If you're looking for an easy way to add PDF annotation to your web app, do check it out!
👉 github.com/recogito/pdf...
If you're looking for an easy way to add PDF annotation to your web app, do check it out!
👉 github.com/recogito/pdf...
GitHub - recogito/pdf-annotator-js: PDF annotation in the browser, using PDF.js and the Recogito Text Annotator.
PDF annotation in the browser, using PDF.js and the Recogito Text Annotator. - recogito/pdf-annotator-js
github.com
September 30, 2025 at 10:53 AM
And while we're at it: the Recogito PDF Annotator – our open source library for interactive PDF annotation in the browser – finally has docs, too!
If you're looking for an easy way to add PDF annotation to your web app, do check it out!
👉 github.com/recogito/pdf...
If you're looking for an easy way to add PDF annotation to your web app, do check it out!
👉 github.com/recogito/pdf...
Reposted by Rainer Simon
Kennt jemand Studien über die "Haltbarkeit" von digitalen Projekten der Geisteswissenschaften? Also wieviel Prozent ist nach wie vielen Jahren nicht mehr online? Ich meine, mal etwas gelesen zu haben, finde aber nur Studien über das Verschwinden von OA-Journals und allgemein #linkrot […]
Original post on fedihum.org
fedihum.org
September 30, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Kennt jemand Studien über die "Haltbarkeit" von digitalen Projekten der Geisteswissenschaften? Also wieviel Prozent ist nach wie vielen Jahren nicht mehr online? Ich meine, mal etwas gelesen zu haben, finde aber nur Studien über das Verschwinden von OA-Journals und allgemein #linkrot […]
The Recogito Text Annotator, our open source JS library for interactive text annotation, finally has developer documentation!
Check it out here: github.com/recogito/tex...
Check it out here: github.com/recogito/tex...
GitHub - recogito/text-annotator-js: A JavaScript library for text annotation.
A JavaScript library for text annotation. Contribute to recogito/text-annotator-js development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
September 30, 2025 at 9:10 AM
The Recogito Text Annotator, our open source JS library for interactive text annotation, finally has developer documentation!
Check it out here: github.com/recogito/tex...
Check it out here: github.com/recogito/tex...
The Recogito PDF Annotator now applies better post-processing to the annotation highlights.
The differences are subtle. But I like how those gaps, uneven line height and messy overlapping box artefacts are now smoothed into clean, continuous lines.
Before vs. after:
The differences are subtle. But I like how those gaps, uneven line height and messy overlapping box artefacts are now smoothed into clean, continuous lines.
Before vs. after:
September 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
The Recogito PDF Annotator now applies better post-processing to the annotation highlights.
The differences are subtle. But I like how those gaps, uneven line height and messy overlapping box artefacts are now smoothed into clean, continuous lines.
Before vs. after:
The differences are subtle. But I like how those gaps, uneven line height and messy overlapping box artefacts are now smoothed into clean, continuous lines.
Before vs. after:
Reposted by Rainer Simon
A question for #DigitalArtHistory: If you were to create a small online image database (with IIIF support) right now, which software would you choose? Fylr (ex easydb), Coneda KOR, something completely different?
September 22, 2025 at 8:07 AM
A question for #DigitalArtHistory: If you were to create a small online image database (with IIIF support) right now, which software would you choose? Fylr (ex easydb), Coneda KOR, something completely different?
Reposted by Rainer Simon
We’re pleased to announce Performant Studio, an open source, standards-based software toolkit for #digitalhumanities projects. Check it out:
www.performantsoftware.com/studio/
www.performantsoftware.com/studio/
Performant Studio
We partner with scholars in the humanities to build software for research and education.
www.performantsoftware.com
September 19, 2025 at 7:36 PM
We’re pleased to announce Performant Studio, an open source, standards-based software toolkit for #digitalhumanities projects. Check it out:
www.performantsoftware.com/studio/
www.performantsoftware.com/studio/
Working on exciting stuff with @performant.bsky.social. We're extending #RecogitoStudio to support fully custom annotation environments!
Need a UI unique to your project? Make it a plugin and get the rest for free: doc/corpus mgmt, users/groups/tasks, multi-format support, realtime collab & more.
Need a UI unique to your project? Make it a plugin and get the rest for free: doc/corpus mgmt, users/groups/tasks, multi-format support, realtime collab & more.
September 19, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Working on exciting stuff with @performant.bsky.social. We're extending #RecogitoStudio to support fully custom annotation environments!
Need a UI unique to your project? Make it a plugin and get the rest for free: doc/corpus mgmt, users/groups/tasks, multi-format support, realtime collab & more.
Need a UI unique to your project? Make it a plugin and get the rest for free: doc/corpus mgmt, users/groups/tasks, multi-format support, realtime collab & more.
We just released IMMARKUS 1.0 - our first full release!
An open-source tool for semantic image annotation: multi-image workbench, AI-powered selection tools, ontology builder, knowledge graph, #IIIF support.
Runs fully local–no login, no-signups, no data sent to the cloud!
👉 immarkus.xmarkus.org
An open-source tool for semantic image annotation: multi-image workbench, AI-powered selection tools, ontology builder, knowledge graph, #IIIF support.
Runs fully local–no login, no-signups, no data sent to the cloud!
👉 immarkus.xmarkus.org
IMMARKUS
An image annotation environment for the MARKUS platform. Developed by Prof. Dr. Hilde De Weerdt, Dr. Rainer Simon, Dr. Lee Sunkyu, Dr. Iva Stojević, Meret Meister, and Xi Wangzhi with funding from the...
immarkus.xmarkus.org
September 8, 2025 at 12:44 PM
We just released IMMARKUS 1.0 - our first full release!
An open-source tool for semantic image annotation: multi-image workbench, AI-powered selection tools, ontology builder, knowledge graph, #IIIF support.
Runs fully local–no login, no-signups, no data sent to the cloud!
👉 immarkus.xmarkus.org
An open-source tool for semantic image annotation: multi-image workbench, AI-powered selection tools, ontology builder, knowledge graph, #IIIF support.
Runs fully local–no login, no-signups, no data sent to the cloud!
👉 immarkus.xmarkus.org
Been using the Smart Scissors tool in liiive.now for a while & it's been working pretty well.
There's still a small memory leak somewhere... If it hangs after longer use: refresh the page. (Nice thing about liiive: annotations are always saved, you won't lose data.)
✂️ liiive.now/blog/2025-08...
There's still a small memory leak somewhere... If it hangs after longer use: refresh the page. (Nice thing about liiive: annotations are always saved, you won't lose data.)
✂️ liiive.now/blog/2025-08...
Real-time Collaborative Annotation for IIIF Collections
Collaborate in real-time on IIIF image collections. Annotate, view, and explore high-resolution images with your team. Even without a login.
liiive.now
September 2, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Been using the Smart Scissors tool in liiive.now for a while & it's been working pretty well.
There's still a small memory leak somewhere... If it hangs after longer use: refresh the page. (Nice thing about liiive: annotations are always saved, you won't lose data.)
✂️ liiive.now/blog/2025-08...
There's still a small memory leak somewhere... If it hangs after longer use: refresh the page. (Nice thing about liiive: annotations are always saved, you won't lose data.)
✂️ liiive.now/blog/2025-08...