Getting the most from the newspaper viewer in The Social History Archive
The Social History Archive’s newspaper viewer offers tools to support careful reading, navigation, and interpretation of historical newspaper content
The newspaper viewer in The Social History Archive is designed to support close reading of historical newspapers. Its tools are intended to help researchers navigate the pages, focus on relevant material, and work effectively with digitised images during analysis
Highlighted search terms
When you access a newspaper page from a name or keyword search, the viewer will highlight matching search terms directly on the page and automatically focus on the relevant article area. This helps you orient yourself quickly within dense layouts. Highlights can be removed at any time if you prefer to read the page without visual emphasis.
Understanding the newspaper
The information icon provides details about the newspaper you are viewing, such as the publication title and date. Keeping this information visible helps ensure accurate interpretation and citation, particularly when working across multiple titles or time periods.
Zoom and image adjustment tools
Zoom controls allow you to magnify or reduce the newspaper image and reset the view as needed. These tools are particularly useful for examining small print, marginal content, or detailed illustrations.
Additional image tools allow you to adjust how the page is displayed, including:
- Inverting colours, which can improve readability for dark or heavily inked pages
- Adjusting brightness, contrast, or saturation to account for variations in print quality or digitisation
Clipping tool
The clipping tool allows you to capture either a full page or a selected portion of a page using a drag‑and‑select interface. Once created, clips can be downloaded, printed, or shared, supporting citation, teaching, or offline analysis.
Navigating pages and issues
Navigation controls allow you to move page by page within an issue or step directly to the next or previous issue. A visual page reel can be shown or hidden to help you understand how many pages an issue contains and where you are positioned within it.