Photograph a manuscript

When you photograph a manuscript in an archive, Pangur can keep the photographs as the manuscript's facsimile. Each photograph is stored, prepared for zoomable viewing and placed on a folio of the manuscript in your catalogue, so that afterwards you can read the manuscript leaf by leaf and transcribe it.

This page follows one archive visit from start to finish. It starts with the iPhone, because that is where most photographs are taken, and then turns to the Mac and the web, which do the same job from photographs you already have.

What you need firstCopy Anchor Link

Photographs of a manuscript are filed on a manuscript in your project's catalogue. A manuscript is identified by its repository (the institution that holds it) and its shelfmark, such as NRS GD16/1/2. It does not need a library item, and in fact most catalogued manuscripts have none.

You can create the manuscript on the spot from any of the apps by typing its shelfmark as you would cite it in a footnote. Pangur creates the repository and any levels above the manuscript that do not yet exist. Repositories, levels and shelfmarks are explained in full in The catalogue.

A set of photographs taken together becomes one copy of the manuscript. A copy is a set of files that together show a resource, an afternoon's photographs being the typical example, and each photograph in it is a surrogate. The MCP tools and the API call a copy a surrogate set. See resources, copies and surrogates for how these fit together.

Photographing a manuscript on iPhoneCopy Anchor Link

Choosing the manuscriptCopy Anchor Link

1. Open Capture.
2. Choose the manuscript you are photographing. Choose from catalogue browses your repositories and manuscripts, New manuscript adds one by repository and shelfmark, and Use my location lets Pangur offer the repository you are in (see below).
3. Pangur asks for a capture source. Choose Take photographs to use the camera, or Choose photographs to pick photographs already in Photos.

If you leave a capture before it is sent, it is kept under Unfinished captures on the Capture screen, and you can carry on from there later.

Finding the repository from your locationCopy Anchor Link

If you allow Pangur to use your location while the app is open, Capture compares your position with the locations recorded for the repositories in your project. When the phone has a recent, accurate position that falls within exactly one repository's area, Capture shows You are here with that repository and offers Manuscripts at … and New manuscript at …. When the match is less certain, it shows a Nearest repository as a suggestion, provided one is within about a kilometre and clearly closer than the next.

A repository only has a location if one has been recorded for it, for example with Locate on a Mac (see below).

Taking the photographsCopy Anchor Link

The camera screen has a Folio label field. Type the label of the leaf you are photographing, such as 1r, and Pangur shows what it will call the next shot (1v in this case). If the next shot shows the same leaf again, for instance a detail or a second exposure, choose Same folio and it joins the previous folio instead.

If you have given Pangur full access to Photos, the camera also saves each original in an album called "Pangur Captures". With limited access the originals are saved to Photos without the album, and with no access only Pangur keeps them.

Choose Review when you have finished.

Reviewing and sendingCopy Anchor Link

The Review photographs screen shows the photographs grouped into folios, and lets you decide where they go.

Under Catalogue destinations, the Default manuscript receives every folio, but you can choose a different manuscript for any one folio, which splits the batch between manuscripts. New by reference… adds a manuscript by shelfmark.

Under Placement, you say how the folios join the manuscript's existing ones. Fill existing folios puts the photographs on folios already in the catalogue, starting from the First folio you choose. Insert new folios adds new folios before the folio you choose under Insert before, or after the last folio if you choose Append at end.

Under About this manuscript, you can record the Language and Period of the hand. These help the model that reads the pages later to expect the right letterforms and symbols.

Each photograph can be rotated, relabelled or marked Starts a new folio. Remove from batch takes a photograph out of this batch only, and deletes nothing from Photos.

The queue button summarises what you are about to send (so many originals, folios and manuscripts). When you choose it, the batch goes into the upload queue. The phone keeps the originals until Pangur's server confirms that it has stored them and placed them in the catalogue. Uploads continue in the background, with the phone locked if need be, and you can follow them in Uploads. Without a connection the batch waits in the queue and is sent when the phone is online again.

Scanning a book's pages into a PDF on iPhoneCopy Anchor Link

For a printed book or another library item, Capture makes a PDF rather than a facsimile.

1. In Capture, choose Choose from library or New library reference.
2. Choose Scan pages to use the document camera, or Choose photographs to build the PDF from photographs in Photos.
3. On the review screen, set Pages in a shot to Single page or Two-page spread, and adjust each page's corners or split if needed.
4. Under PDF, choose the quality (Standard, Archival or Compact) and check the estimated size against Pangur's limit. Split automatically makes several PDFs in order when one would be too large.
5. Choose Build and queue PDF.

The phone builds the PDF and queues it for upload to the item. A scan in progress survives the app being closed.

Importing photographs from Photos on a MacCopy Anchor Link

Pangur for Mac can bring a whole shoot in from the Photos library, sorted into sessions and filed on the right manuscripts. It needs access to Photos; if you have not granted it, the window explains how to do so in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Photos.

Opening the import windowCopy Anchor Link

The Import media window opens from Import media from Photos in the library toolbar, from Import media in an item's menu (which files the photographs on that item or manuscript), or from Import photographs… in the catalogue or on the Import stage of a manuscript.

Choosing the photographsCopy Anchor Link

1. Under When, choose a time window, such as Today or Last 3 hours, or set From and To.
2. Pangur groups the photographs into sessions. A pause longer than Gap (10 minutes by default) starts a new session, so one session is usually one manuscript. If the grouping is wrong, right-click a photograph to Start a session here or Merge into previous session, or select some photographs and choose Make session.
3. If your repositories have locations, Pangur matches each photograph that has a GPS position to the nearest repository within Radius (0.1 km by default). The place filter shows one repository's photographs, and Located only hides the rest.
4. Select the photographs to import, for example with Select session.

To record where a repository is, select photographs taken there and choose Locate, then Locate … here. Pangur stores the average position of those photographs as the repository's location, and from then on shoots there are matched by place. New repository… creates a repository, optionally located from the selected photographs.

Filing and importingCopy Anchor Link

1. Choose File in catalogue and choose the manuscript, from Here (manuscripts at the matched repository) or Elsewhere. New by reference… adds a manuscript by shelfmark.
2. Choose Import … photographs, or press Return.

The window reports how many were imported, how many were already there and how many failed. Pangur for Mac sends each original at full resolution, with its date, place, camera details and Photos identifier. Photographs already imported are marked, so you can run the same time window again without sending them twice.

Rotate 90° clockwise in a photograph's menu saves the rotation back to Photos as an edit that Photos can revert. Videos selected in the window are added to your library as recordings (Record audio and video).

Uploading photographs on the webCopy Anchor Link

On the web, you upload photographs from your computer onto a manuscript.

1. In the catalogue, open the manuscript and choose Import & arrange photographs…. The manuscript's import desk opens at its Import stage.
2. Choose the copy the photographs belong to, or leave the choice alone to make a new one.
3. Drop the photographs on the upload area, or choose them. Each file can be up to 100 MB, in JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, HEIC or HEIF format.

As each photograph finishes, Pangur places it on a leaf of its own, in the order the photographs were taken. The Arrange and Number stages then let you combine photographs onto leaves and apply foliation or pagination, as described in the catalogue and numbering systems.

You can also add photographs to a library item that is not catalogued, such as a letter, from the item's Read tab with Add a copy. For item types that are photographed, Pangur treats the images as photographs and prepares them for zoomable viewing in the same way.

What Pangur does with the photographsCopy Anchor Link

For every upload, Pangur's server checks each photograph's contents against what the project already holds, so a photograph you have already uploaded to the project is not stored or counted twice. Photographs count against your plan's storage, and Pangur checks the space before it accepts them (plans and limits).

After storing a photograph, Pangur prepares it for zoomable viewing. Until that is done, the photograph is marked Preparing, and the manuscript reports how many of its photographs are ready. Photographs uploaded together become one copy, titled with the date, such as "Photographs, 5 November 2026".

Next stepsCopy Anchor Link

• Read the manuscript leaf by leaf.
• Transcribe it.
• Link a digitised facsimile when the repository has published one.