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
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
It actually works pretty well on mobile, too! With the caveat that – like Isla de Muerta – the 14th annotation can only be found by those who already knew where it was.
Hint: you have to hit the little marker before "prevented". The rest is buried below the other, shorter annotations above.
Hint: you have to hit the little marker before "prevented". The rest is buried below the other, shorter annotations above.
November 5, 2025 at 4:29 PM
It actually works pretty well on mobile, too! With the caveat that – like Isla de Muerta – the 14th annotation can only be found by those who already knew where it was.
Hint: you have to hit the little marker before "prevented". The rest is buried below the other, shorter annotations above.
Hint: you have to hit the little marker before "prevented". The rest is buried below the other, shorter annotations above.
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!
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
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:
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.
Totally wild: #Annotorious v2 (the old version of my open source image annotation library) did 1.5M page loads this month 🤯 (2 files=3M requests).
Bot traffic included, for sure. But the real pain: no way to know who’s using it or what for. Such is open source... www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/...
Bot traffic included, for sure. But the real pain: no way to know who’s using it or what for. Such is open source... www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/...
August 27, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Totally wild: #Annotorious v2 (the old version of my open source image annotation library) did 1.5M page loads this month 🤯 (2 files=3M requests).
Bot traffic included, for sure. But the real pain: no way to know who’s using it or what for. Such is open source... www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/...
Bot traffic included, for sure. But the real pain: no way to know who’s using it or what for. Such is open source... www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/...
Ok, so annotations are sometimes hard to see in #liiive. That's why I added a new button: calling it X-Ray mode for lack of a better name. (Let me know if you have ideas!) Try it now on liiive.now!
August 26, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Ok, so annotations are sometimes hard to see in #liiive. That's why I added a new button: calling it X-Ray mode for lack of a better name. (Let me know if you have ideas!) Try it now on liiive.now!
With #IMMARKUS, you can already use popular AI services for image transcription. Now, you can also use them for translation! Transcribe a historic source, select the annotation—and translate it with a click.
August 12, 2025 at 9:48 AM
With #IMMARKUS, you can already use popular AI services for image transcription. Now, you can also use them for translation! Transcribe a historic source, select the annotation—and translate it with a click.
Reminder: Annotorious brings Photoshop-like selection tools to your browser!
• Intelligent Scissors
• Magnetic Cursor
• WebGPU-powered SegmentAnything
I just wrote proper docs! Usage guides, examples, full API:
github.com/annotorious/...
github.com/annotorious/...
#OpenSeadragon #IIIF
• Intelligent Scissors
• Magnetic Cursor
• WebGPU-powered SegmentAnything
I just wrote proper docs! Usage guides, examples, full API:
github.com/annotorious/...
github.com/annotorious/...
#OpenSeadragon #IIIF
August 8, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reminder: Annotorious brings Photoshop-like selection tools to your browser!
• Intelligent Scissors
• Magnetic Cursor
• WebGPU-powered SegmentAnything
I just wrote proper docs! Usage guides, examples, full API:
github.com/annotorious/...
github.com/annotorious/...
#OpenSeadragon #IIIF
• Intelligent Scissors
• Magnetic Cursor
• WebGPU-powered SegmentAnything
I just wrote proper docs! Usage guides, examples, full API:
github.com/annotorious/...
github.com/annotorious/...
#OpenSeadragon #IIIF
We are extending the multi-select options in #IMMARKUS! Merge and subtract selections, batch-tag and batch-delete, and (new!) compare annotation data side-by-side. The multi-select panel is getting a small facelift, too!
August 6, 2025 at 8:18 AM
We are extending the multi-select options in #IMMARKUS! Merge and subtract selections, batch-tag and batch-delete, and (new!) compare annotation data side-by-side. The multi-select panel is getting a small facelift, too!
Feature alert: ✂️ #liiive just got a new tool: Photoshop-style Smart Scissors! Automatically trace shape outlines and annotate complex objects in seconds.
Try it now at liiive.now
#IIIF #ImageAnnotation
Try it now at liiive.now
#IIIF #ImageAnnotation
July 31, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Feature alert: ✂️ #liiive just got a new tool: Photoshop-style Smart Scissors! Automatically trace shape outlines and annotate complex objects in seconds.
Try it now at liiive.now
#IIIF #ImageAnnotation
Try it now at liiive.now
#IIIF #ImageAnnotation
Quick update: Plugging your own transcription service into #IMMARKUS via Hugging Face Spaces is now available for testing on our dev server!
It’s a bit DIY/hacky... But if you’re building your own HF Spaces, you’re probably ready for that 🙂 Ping me if you’d like to try it out!
It’s a bit DIY/hacky... But if you’re building your own HF Spaces, you’re probably ready for that 🙂 Ping me if you’d like to try it out!
July 30, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Quick update: Plugging your own transcription service into #IMMARKUS via Hugging Face Spaces is now available for testing on our dev server!
It’s a bit DIY/hacky... But if you’re building your own HF Spaces, you’re probably ready for that 🙂 Ping me if you’d like to try it out!
It’s a bit DIY/hacky... But if you’re building your own HF Spaces, you’re probably ready for that 🙂 Ping me if you’d like to try it out!
Back to work after a short break & working on two new #IMMARKUS transcription extensions:
• Transcribe via HuggingFace Inference Providers
• Plug in your own HuggingFace Space!
The second one’s experimental... If you run your own Space and want to try it in IMMARKUS, give me a shout!
• Transcribe via HuggingFace Inference Providers
• Plug in your own HuggingFace Space!
The second one’s experimental... If you run your own Space and want to try it in IMMARKUS, give me a shout!
July 29, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Back to work after a short break & working on two new #IMMARKUS transcription extensions:
• Transcribe via HuggingFace Inference Providers
• Plug in your own HuggingFace Space!
The second one’s experimental... If you run your own Space and want to try it in IMMARKUS, give me a shout!
• Transcribe via HuggingFace Inference Providers
• Plug in your own HuggingFace Space!
The second one’s experimental... If you run your own Space and want to try it in IMMARKUS, give me a shout!
Sketching out an idea for a future #liiive feature:
• Write about a IIIF object
• Embed annotation snippets (links or images).
• Everything stays connected—click a snippet to move the viewer. Maybe even a bit of #scrollytelling?
Curious what you think—would you use this? #DigitalHumanities #IIIF
• Write about a IIIF object
• Embed annotation snippets (links or images).
• Everything stays connected—click a snippet to move the viewer. Maybe even a bit of #scrollytelling?
Curious what you think—would you use this? #DigitalHumanities #IIIF
July 20, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Sketching out an idea for a future #liiive feature:
• Write about a IIIF object
• Embed annotation snippets (links or images).
• Everything stays connected—click a snippet to move the viewer. Maybe even a bit of #scrollytelling?
Curious what you think—would you use this? #DigitalHumanities #IIIF
• Write about a IIIF object
• Embed annotation snippets (links or images).
• Everything stays connected—click a snippet to move the viewer. Maybe even a bit of #scrollytelling?
Curious what you think—would you use this? #DigitalHumanities #IIIF
July 18, 2025 at 9:39 AM
#liiive is a platform for collaborative #IIIF annotation. But sometimes you might want to share work once it’s done, without allowing further edits. Now you can!
After you switch rooms to read-only mode, visitors can view annotations, but only the room owner can make changes.
Try now: liiive.now
After you switch rooms to read-only mode, visitors can view annotations, but only the room owner can make changes.
Try now: liiive.now
July 15, 2025 at 2:35 PM
#liiive is a platform for collaborative #IIIF annotation. But sometimes you might want to share work once it’s done, without allowing further edits. Now you can!
After you switch rooms to read-only mode, visitors can view annotations, but only the room owner can make changes.
Try now: liiive.now
After you switch rooms to read-only mode, visitors can view annotations, but only the room owner can make changes.
Try now: liiive.now
Another frequently requested feature is coming to #liiive later this week: read-only rooms!
Visitors can view rooms and read annotations, but adding new annotations or replies is locked–except for the room owner. Perfect for sharing your work when it’s done.
Visitors can view rooms and read annotations, but adding new annotations or replies is locked–except for the room owner. Perfect for sharing your work when it’s done.
July 14, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Another frequently requested feature is coming to #liiive later this week: read-only rooms!
Visitors can view rooms and read annotations, but adding new annotations or replies is locked–except for the room owner. Perfect for sharing your work when it’s done.
Visitors can view rooms and read annotations, but adding new annotations or replies is locked–except for the room owner. Perfect for sharing your work when it’s done.
The new Path tool is now available for testing on liiive.now! Smooth curves and precise control for annotating complex shapes. 🚀
July 11, 2025 at 10:50 AM
The new Path tool is now available for testing on liiive.now! Smooth curves and precise control for annotating complex shapes. 🚀
Because sometimes you want that extra bit of precision: Bezier curve drawing is coming—pixel-perfect annotations for #IMMARKUS, #liiive, and all tools powered by #Annotorious
July 10, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Because sometimes you want that extra bit of precision: Bezier curve drawing is coming—pixel-perfect annotations for #IMMARKUS, #liiive, and all tools powered by #Annotorious
Not huge news I guess, but might be useful to some #Annotorious users: a plugin for drawing lines and polylines with (optinally) bezier curves! Ping me if you want to test. #ImageAnnotation #IIIF
July 9, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Not huge news I guess, but might be useful to some #Annotorious users: a plugin for drawing lines and polylines with (optinally) bezier curves! Ping me if you want to test. #ImageAnnotation #IIIF