diff --git a/.Rbuildignore b/.Rbuildignore
index fddda98..a13bd41 100644
--- a/.Rbuildignore
+++ b/.Rbuildignore
@@ -13,3 +13,7 @@ vignettes/.*\.png$
 ^configure.log$
 ^\.github$
 ^\.vscode$
+^README\.Rmd$
+^README\.html$
+^docs$
+^pkgdown$
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 920705d..3924c0a 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ S3method(print,tesseract)
 export(ocr)
 export(ocr_data)
 export(tesseract)
+export(tesseract_contributed_download)
 export(tesseract_download)
 export(tesseract_info)
 export(tesseract_params)
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
deleted file mode 100644
index e32bac7..0000000
--- a/NEWS
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,102 +0,0 @@
-5.2.1
-  - Fix shell script for cross compilation
-
-5.2.0
-  - Windows: update to tesseract 5.3.2
-
-5.1.0
-  - Win: update to tesseract 5.1.0.
-  - Win: apply patch for freezes when running under UTF-8 in R-4.2.
-    See: https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/issues/3830
-
-5.0.0
-  - Win/Mac: update to libtesseract 5.0.1
-  - Remove locale workaround on libtesseract 4.1+ (should only be needed for 4.0)
-  - Remove cruft that was needed to support Solaris
-
-4.2.0
-  - Prepare for API changes in upcoming Tesseract 5 release
-  - Change the default language="eng" in tesseract()
-
-4.1.2
-  - Fix for upstream master/main renames in language repos
-
-4.1.1
-  - Win/Mac: update to libtesseract 4.1.1
-
-4.1
-  - Fix memory leak in ocr_data()
-  - Windows / MacOS: update to libtesseract 4.1.0. This re-enables
-    the whitelist/blacklist options that were missing in Tesseract 4.0
-
-4.0
-  - Windows, MacOS: Upgrade to upstream Tesseract 4.0! Completely new OCR engine.
-  - Tesseract 4 has a new training data format. On Windows / MacOS you need to
-    re-download your language data with tesseract_download(). The package uses
-    separate directories for storing Tesseract 3 vs 4 data so they shouldn't get
-    mixed up (hopefully).
-  - Drop hard-dependency on tibble (only load if available)
-
-2.3
-  - Fix problem with setlocale() not properly restoring locale.
-  - Switch examples from dontrun{} to donttest{}, and '--run-donttest' on travis/appveyor
-
-2.2
-  - Fixes for breaking changes in Tesseract 4.0.0 beta.3
-  - Set LC_ALL = C when initiating tesseract
-  - Include <tesseract/*> to support Tesseract 4
-
-2.1
-  - Fixes for 4.0.0-beta.1: they switched to semver + other data branch
-  - Set LC_CTYPE to "C" when loading training data (required for some asian languages)
-  - Add back OSD training data on Windows
-
-2.0
-  - Set tesseract parameters at init so that all parameters types now actually work!
-  - New function tesseract_params() lists all supported parameters and their default
-  - Added 'config' argument to tesseract() which specifies a file with parameter values
-  - Internally validate paremeter names before init to revent tesseract crashes
-  - Rewrite the ocr_data() function in C++ to make it much faster
-  - Tesseract 4 now gets data from the tessdata_fast repo as recommended upstream
-  - Use default resolution of 300dpi when image does not contain resolution info
-
-1.9
-  - Tesseract 4 now dowloads training data from the "tessdata_fast" repo
-  - Add ocr_data() function that parses the hOCR output
-
-1.8
-  - Add support for HOCR output (#20)
-  - Remove 'script' and 'orientation' attributes in output (doesn't work in Tesseract 4)
-
-1.7 (internal)
-  - Add support upcoming Tesseract 4 (compiler fix + separate tessdata dir)
-  - Configure script now explicitly tests for CXX11 (required by Tesseract 4)
-
-1.6
-  - Windows: update libtesseract to 3.05.01
-  - tesseract_download now uses 3.04 tree (instead of 4.00) as suggested in readme
-  - For static packags on Win/Mac, languages stored in: rappdirs::user_data_dir('tesseract')
-  - Use 'png' instead of 'tiff' to read magick images
-  - Compile with $(C_VISIBILITY) to hide internal symbols (requires Rcpp 0.12.12)
-  - Use Rcpp symbol registration
-
-1.4
-  - Run engine finalizer on R exit (requires Rcpp 0.12.10)
-  - Move autobrew script to separate repository
-  - Add symbol registration
-
-1.3
-  - tesseract() gains an 'options' parameter for setting engine variables
-  - New tessseract_download() function for installing training data on Win/Mac
-  - Initiate default tesseract engine onAttach() to fail for missing training data
-  - Add support for ocr() on magick images
-
-1.2
-  - Try to fix build for CRAN OS-X, again.
-
-1.1
-  - Try to fix build for CRAN OS-X build server
-  - Show 'loaded' and 'available' languages in print.tesseract()
-
-1.0
-  - Initial CRAN release
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82f1751
--- /dev/null
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# 5.3.0
+  - This is a fork of the original tesseract package made by Jeroen Ooms.
+  - Differences:
+    - Uses cpp11 instead of Rcpp.
+    - Provides functions to download and use the slower but more accurate
+      models.
+    - Provides functions to download and use contributed models.
+    - The documentation works offline.
+    - Explicitly tests on Ubuntu with Tesseract 4 (Ubuntu 22.04 default) and
+      Tesseract 5 (PPA).
diff --git a/R/tessdata.R b/R/tessdata.R
index 4d8fc8a..3ad0607 100644
--- a/R/tessdata.R
+++ b/R/tessdata.R
@@ -27,8 +27,9 @@
 #' @param progress print progress while downloading
 #' @references [tesseract wiki: training data](https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/Data-Files)
 #' @examples \dontrun{
-#' if(is.na(match("fra", tesseract_info()$available)))
+#' if (is.na(match("fra", tesseract_info()$available))) {
 #'   tesseract_download("fra", model = "best")
+#' }
 #' french <- tesseract("fra")
 #' file <- system.file("examples", "french.png", package = "cpp11tesseract")
 #' text <- ocr(file, engine = french)
@@ -37,38 +38,107 @@
 tesseract_download <- function(lang, datapath = NULL, model = c("fast", "best"), progress = interactive()) {
   stopifnot(is.character(lang))
   model <- match.arg(model)
-  if(!length(datapath)){
+  if (!length(datapath)) {
     warn_on_linux()
     datapath <- tesseract_info()$datapath
   }
   datapath <- normalizePath(datapath, mustWork = TRUE)
   version <- tesseract_version_major()
 
-  if(version < 4){
+  if (version < 4) {
     repo <- "tessdata"
     release <- "3.04.00"
   } else {
     repo <- paste0("tessdata_", model)
     release <- "4.1.0"
   }
-
   url <- sprintf("https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/%s/raw/%s/%s.traineddata", repo, release, lang)
+  download_helper(url, datapath, progress)
+}
 
+#' Tesseract Contributed Training Data
+#'
+#' Helper function to download training data from the contributed
+#' [tessdata_contrib](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_contrib) repository.
+#'
+#' @export
+#' @aliases tessdata
+#' @rdname tessdata
+#' @family tesseract
+#' @seealso [tesseract_download]
+#' @param lang three letter code for language, see [tessdata](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata) repository.
+#' @param datapath destination directory where to download store the file
+#' @param model either `fast` or `best` is currently supported. The latter downloads
+#' more accurate (but slower) trained models for Tesseract 4.0 or higher
+#' @param progress print progress while downloading
+#' @references [tesseract wiki: training data](https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/Data-Files)
+#' @examples
+#' \dontrun{
+#' if (is.na(match("grc_hist", tesseract_info()$available))) {
+#'  tesseract_contributed_download("grc_hist")
+#' }
+#' greek <- tesseract("grc_hist")
+#' file <- system.file("examples", "polytonicgreek.png", package = "cpp11tesseract")
+#' text <- ocr(file, engine = greek)
+#' cat(text)
+#' }
+tesseract_contributed_download <- function(lang, datapath = NULL, model = c("fast", "best"), progress = interactive()) {
+  stopifnot(is.character(lang))
+  if (!any(lang %in% c("grc_hist", "akk"))) {
+    stop("The only available contributed models are Akkadian and Polytonic Greek (for now).", call. = FALSE)
+  }
+  model <- match.arg(model)
+  if (!length(datapath)) {
+    warn_on_linux()
+    datapath <- tesseract_info()$datapath
+  }
+  datapath <- normalizePath(datapath, mustWork = TRUE)
+  version <- tesseract_version_major()
+
+  if (lang == "grc_hist" && version < 4) {
+    stop("The Polytonic Greek model is only available for Tesseract 4.0 or higher.", call. = FALSE)
+  }
+
+  if (lang == "grc_hist") {
+    if (model == "fast") {
+      warning("The Polytonic Greek model is only available in 'best' quality.", call. = FALSE)
+    }
+    release <- "grc_hist/best"
+  }
+
+  if (lang == "akk" && version < 4) {
+    release <- "akk/legacy"
+  } else if (lang == "akk" && model == "best") {
+    release <- "akk/best"
+  } else if (lang == "akk" && model == "fast") {
+    release <- "akk/fast"
+  }
+
+  url <- sprintf("https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_contrib/raw/main/%s/%s.traineddata", release, lang)
+  print(url)
+
+  download_helper(url, datapath, progress)
+}
+
+download_helper <- function(url, datapath, progress) {
   destfile <- file.path(datapath, basename(url))
 
   if (file.exists(destfile)) {
-    message(paste("Training data already exists. Overwriting", destfile))
+    message("The training data already exists. Skipping download.")
+    return(destfile)
   }
 
   req <- curl::curl_fetch_memory(url, curl::new_handle(
     progressfunction = progress_fun,
     noprogress = !isTRUE(progress)
   ))
-  if(progress)
+
+  if (progress) {
     cat("\n")
-  if(req$status_code != 200)
+  }
+  if (req$status_code != 200) {
     stop("Download failed: HTTP ", req$status_code, call. = FALSE)
-
+  }
   writeBin(req$content, destfile)
   return(destfile)
 }
@@ -76,18 +146,19 @@ tesseract_download <- function(lang, datapath = NULL, model = c("fast", "best"),
 progress_fun <- function(down, up) {
   total <- down[[1]]
   now <- down[[2]]
-  pct <- if(length(total) && total > 0){
-    paste0("(", round(now/total * 100), "%)")
+  pct <- if (length(total) && total > 0) {
+    paste0("(", round(now / total * 100), "%)")
   } else {
     ""
   }
-  if(now > 10000)
+  if (now > 10000) {
     cat("\r Downloaded:", sprintf("%.2f", now / 2^20), "MB ", pct)
+  }
   TRUE
 }
 
-warn_on_linux <- function(){
-  if(identical(.Platform$OS.type, "unix") && !identical(Sys.info()[["sysname"]], "Darwin")){
+warn_on_linux <- function() {
+  if (identical(.Platform$OS.type, "unix") && !identical(Sys.info()[["sysname"]], "Darwin")) {
     warning("On Linux you should install training data via yum/apt. Please check the manual page.", call. = FALSE)
   }
 }
diff --git a/man/tessdata.Rd b/man/tessdata.Rd
index 8bbcb55..25b8193 100644
--- a/man/tessdata.Rd
+++ b/man/tessdata.Rd
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 \name{tesseract_download}
 \alias{tesseract_download}
 \alias{tessdata}
+\alias{tesseract_contributed_download}
 \title{Tesseract Training Data}
 \usage{
 tesseract_download(
@@ -11,6 +12,13 @@ tesseract_download(
   model = c("fast", "best"),
   progress = interactive()
 )
+
+tesseract_contributed_download(
+  lang,
+  datapath = NULL,
+  model = c("fast", "best"),
+  progress = interactive()
+)
 }
 \arguments{
 \item{lang}{three letter code for language, see \href{https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata}{tessdata} repository.}
@@ -27,6 +35,9 @@ Helper function to download training data from the official
 \href{https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/Data-Files}{tessdata} repository. On Linux, the fast training data can be installed directly with
 \href{https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/tesseract}{yum} or
 \href{https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=stable&section=all&arch=any&searchon=names&keywords=tesseract-ocr-}{apt-get}.
+
+Helper function to download training data from the contributed
+\href{https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_contrib}{tessdata_contrib} repository.
 }
 \details{
 Tesseract uses training data to perform OCR. Most systems default to English
@@ -43,18 +54,36 @@ and stores it in a the path on disk given by the \code{TESSDATA_PREFIX} variable
 }
 \examples{
 \dontrun{
-if(is.na(match("fra", tesseract_info()$available)))
+if (is.na(match("fra", tesseract_info()$available))) {
   tesseract_download("fra", model = "best")
+}
 french <- tesseract("fra")
 file <- system.file("examples", "french.png", package = "cpp11tesseract")
 text <- ocr(file, engine = french)
 cat(text)
 }
+\dontrun{
+if (is.na(match("grc_hist", tesseract_info()$available))) {
+ tesseract_contributed_download("grc_hist")
+}
+greek <- tesseract("grc_hist")
+file <- system.file("examples", "polytonicgreek.png", package = "cpp11tesseract")
+text <- ocr(file, engine = greek)
+cat(text)
+}
 }
 \references{
+\href{https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/Data-Files}{tesseract wiki: training data}
+
 \href{https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/Data-Files}{tesseract wiki: training data}
 }
 \seealso{
+\link{tesseract_download}
+
+Other tesseract: 
+\code{\link{ocr}()},
+\code{\link{tesseract}()}
+
 Other tesseract: 
 \code{\link{ocr}()},
 \code{\link{tesseract}()}