Ground Truth data for printed Malayalam

Ground Truth (GT) data (JPG, PAGE and ALTO XML files) which can be used to train OCR models that recognize printed text in Malayalam script. The training material is gathered from 19th and 20th centuries prints. The GT data was trained in Transkribus with the HTR+ and the PyLaia engine with a resulting CER of 2.29% on validation set with HTR+ and 3,20% with PyLaia. The training was performed on 43 pages with appr. 9,000 words. The validation set consisted of 5 pages (ca. 1,000 words). Transcription was performed by Tübingen University Library, the Ground Truth data was created by Elena Mucciarelli (University of Groningen) with support and model training by Dorothee Huff (Tübingen University Library).