An article in
New Scientist explains that researchers traditionally hunted for specific “traits in the styles of letters to help identify different scribes.” However, Professor Popović said this type of identification method is “somewhat subjective and often hotly debated.”
The trouble is every pair of human eyes interprets tiny twists and turns differently, and traditional methods of grouping as such have been prone to great inaccuracies and contrasting interpretations.
Greyscale image of column 15 from the Great Isaiah Scroll (left). From the red boxes (right) of the last two images one can see how the rotation and the geometric transformation is corrected to yield a better image for further processing. (Brill Publishers /