ArchiveRescue — Restore Old Documents with Open-Source AI

Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle

I built ArchiveRescue, a tool that helps restore and digitize old scanned documents using open-source AI.

Users can upload documents, improve image quality, extract text using OCR, and download the results.

This could be useful for historians, researchers, museums, and freelancers offering document digitization services.

Live Demo: https://archiverescue.e1ite.workers.dev/

Upload a document, choose an enhancement mode, and click Restore & transcribe.

You can review the extracted text, make corrections, and download the results.

GitHub: https://github.com/shadowe1ite/ArchiveRescue

The project is open-source under the MIT license.

One challenge was recognizing handwritten documents. The initial OCR results weren't accurate, so I added region selection, image enlargement, and confidence warnings.

Handwriting recognition still needs improvement.

I chose open-source AI because it allows documents to be processed locally without uploading them to third-party OCR services.

It also keeps costs low since there are no per-document API charges.

Using open-source tools gives me the freedom to improve the OCR pipeline, experiment with different models, and add new features without depending on proprietary services.

I used AI coding assistance to help build and improve the project. I haven't recorded a DevRelay session.

I tested the application with a historical document. The OCR struggled with handwritten text, which helped me identify areas to improve.

Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle.

Demo: https://archiverescue.e1ite.workers.dev/

Source Code: https://github.com/shadowe1ite/ArchiveRescue