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ALTO (Analyzed Layout and Text Object)

is an XML Schema that details technical metadata for describing the layout and content of physical text resources, such as pages of a book or a newspaper. It most commonly serves as an extension schema used with the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Schema (METS) Schema. However, ALTO instances can also exist as a standalone document used independently of METS.

Versions

Latest official schema version 3.1 (January 2016)

• Primary http://www.loc.gov/standards/alto/v3/alto-3-1.xsd
• Alternate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/altoxml/schema/master/v3/alto-3-1.xsd
• [Summary of changes] (https://github.com/altoxml/documentation/wiki/v3.1-Changes)
• [Leave a comment about v3.1 schema] (https://github.com/altoxml/schema/issues/new) - Requires GitHub account

Previous official schema version 3.0

• Primary http://www.loc.gov/standards/alto/v3/alto-3-0.xsd
• Alternate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/altoxml/schema/master/v3/alto-3-0.xsd
• [Summary of changes] (https://github.com/altoxml/documentation/wiki/v3.0-Changes)
• [Leave a comment about v3.0 schema] (https://github.com/altoxml/schema/issues/new) - Requires GitHub account

Earlier schema version 2.1

• Primary http://www.loc.gov/standards/alto/v2/alto-2-1.xsd
• Alternate https://raw2.github.com/altoxml/schema/master/v2/alto-2-1.xsd
• [Summary of changes] (https://github.com/altoxml/documentation/wiki/v2.1-Changes)

Further information

Technical Documentation - Technical documentation, guidance and best practises

Reference samples - ALTO XML files with corresponding image files.

Software - Software for creating, presenting and editing ALTO files

Implementers - List of organisations using ALTO in digitised content