Visual Page Editor

A modern visual editor for Page XML files, based on nw-page-editor.

Repository: https://github.com/buzzcauldron/visual-page-editor

Description

Visual Page Editor is an application for viewing and editing ground truth or predicted information for document processing and text recognition. Editing is done interactively on top of images of scanned documents.

Features

• Visual editing of Page XML with live feedback
• Supports omni:us Pages Format, PRImA Page XML, ALTO v2/v3, TET, Poppler
• Desktop app (NW.js) and web-app variant
• Keyboard shortcuts (see KEYBOARD-SHORTCUTS.md)

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Quick start (desktop)

You do not need NW.js installed globally or on your PATH. The nw npm package downloads the NW.js SDK into node_modules/ during install. Launchers prefer the npm-installed SDK (node_modules/.bin/nw on Unix, node_modules/nw/nwjs-sdk-*/nw.exe on Windows) and prepend portable Node from .tools/ to PATH when install-desktop has bootstrapped it.

Automatic install (Node optional): one block installs dependencies, verifies NW.js, and optionally starts the app.

• Linux / macOS / Git Bash:

  git clone https://github.com/buzzcauldron/visual-page-editor.git && cd visual-page-editor && ./scripts/install-desktop.sh --start

  Install only (no launch): ./scripts/install-desktop.sh
  Same from repo root: ./install.sh or npm run install-desktop

• Windows (PowerShell):

  git clone https://github.com/buzzcauldron/visual-page-editor.git; cd visual-page-editor; .\scripts\install-desktop.ps1 -Start

install-desktop runs ./scripts/bootstrap-node.sh when Node 18+ is missing (portable Node into .tools/), then npm install (pulls NW.js), then checks that node_modules/.bin/nw exists.

Manual path (if you already have Node + npm):

git clone https://github.com/buzzcauldron/visual-page-editor.git && cd visual-page-editor && npm install && npm start

Linux / macOS (install then open a sample file):

cd visual-page-editor
./scripts/install-desktop.sh
./bin/visual-page-editor examples/lorem.xml

macOS only: use a native Apple Silicon terminal on M-series Macs when possible; portable Node and NW.js target arm64. Troubleshooting and Rosetta notes: INSTALL-MAC.md.

Windows (PowerShell), install then sample:

cd visual-page-editor
.\scripts\install-desktop.ps1
.\bin\visual-page-editor.ps1 examples\lorem.xml

GitHub ZIP (no Git): Extract the archive, open a terminal in that folder, then run ./scripts/install-desktop.sh --start (Unix) or .\scripts\install-desktop.ps1 -Start (Windows) — same automatic sequence as above.

Details: install-desktop uses ./scripts/bootstrap-node.sh when Node 18+ is missing (portable Node under .tools/; requires curl/wget + tar on Unix). You can still run bootstrap alone if you prefer.

You do not need to install NW.js separately or add it to your system PATH; the nw package installs under node_modules/.

Docker: The desktop image runs NW.js from a fixed path inside the container (/app/nwjs/nw); nothing is added to PATH on the host. See README-DOCKER.md.

The nw package is a regular dependency; its postinstall downloads the NW.js SDK for your OS/arch into node_modules/ (ignored by git). The launcher prefers node_modules/.bin/nw when present, then falls back to ~/.nwjs, PATH, or (when AUTO_DOWNLOAD_NWJS is set) a download. Install checks and simulated clean environments: TESTING.md. For packaged builds (e.g. from BUILD.md), use the installed launcher.

On Linux ARM64, uname -m sets the architecture so auto-download and ~/.nwjs lookups use linux-arm64; npm install does the same via the nw package. If only an x64 binary is found, the launcher warns and you can run npm install or set AUTO_DOWNLOAD_NWJS=1 to fetch the matching SDK.

Open multiple files:

./bin/visual-page-editor examples/lorem.xml examples/lorem2.xml

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Container (Docker)

Recommended: from the repo root, use ./docker-run.sh — it builds a version-tagged image (visual-page-editor:<VERSION> from VERSION), configures XQuartz on macOS or X11 on Linux, and mounts your project so saves stay on the host. First run builds the image; after upgrades use ./docker-run.sh --build ….

./docker-run.sh examples/lorem.xml

No Node or NW.js is required on the host—only Docker (and XQuartz on macOS for a visible window). Full prerequisites, Compose, and manual docker commands: README-DOCKER.md.

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Usage

Shortcut	Action
Mod + O / Mod + S	Open / Save
Page Up/Down or arrows	Navigate pages (arrows pan when zoomed)
Mod + 0 / Mod + 2	Fit page / Zoom to selection
Tab / Shift + Tab	Next / previous element
Full list	KEYBOARD-SHORTCUTS.md

Supported formats

• omni:us Pages Format, PRImA Page XML (2013-07-15, 2010-03-19), ALTO v2/v3, TET, Poppler

Web app

The web-app directory provides a web-based variant for remote use. See that directory for setup.

Development

git clone https://github.com/buzzcauldron/visual-page-editor.git
cd visual-page-editor
./scripts/install-desktop.sh   # or: npm install
./bin/visual-page-editor
# or: npm start

Verification scripts (verify:nw, Docker bootstrap test, clean macOS copy): TESTING.md. The launcher uses NWJS_VERSION (default 0.109.1, aligned with nw@0.109.1-sdk in package.json). Set AUTO_DOWNLOAD_NWJS=1 if the launcher should download NW.js to ~/.nwjs when node_modules is absent.

Code review: npm run review or ./scripts/code-review.sh. See CODE_REVIEW.md.

License and links

• License: MIT — LICENSE.md
• This project: github.com/buzzcauldron/visual-page-editor
• Original: nw-page-editor by Mauricio Villegas
• Page format: omni-us/pageformat