Image-based editing ameliorates the markup problems of fallibility and distance . Even preternaturally careful human beings make mistakes. These mistakes take the form of sins of commission and omission . Many of these errors are displayed on the screen. Human readers are not accustomed to separating form from content in the way computer consistency requires a tagger to do, and so tagging itself becomes inconsistent.
Taggers invariably neglect to tag some aspects of the bibliographical code.
The second reason image-based editing is superior to approaches which make page images available as a supplement to a diplomatic transcription is that the second method introduces too much distance between the source text and its electronic edition. Current electronic editors are mistaking the byproduct for the end-product . What they want is utility and satisfactory representation . What they get is utility. My present work lies in developing that technology and theorizing that practice.