Bringing out faded document

TH
Posted By
Tom Holmdahl
Jul 13, 2004
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1691
Replies
3
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Closed
Hi, I’m trying to read a copy of a faded document (genealogy) and would love some ideas. I’m new to Photoshop and I have dinked with Levels, Curves but not Masks to help bring out the writing to an all black with crisp letters (just readable would be great, too). What I’ve done is some help but not what I was hoping for. Any suggestions to point me in the right direction to help read the doc would be super!!!

Thanks for any help

Tom Holmdahl
Washington State
Related Tags
document fade

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TD
The Doormouse
Jul 13, 2004
Tom Holmdahl wrote:

I’m trying to read a copy of a faded document (genealogy) and would love some ideas.

If you could get a drum scan, that might help.

The Doormouse

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JD
John Doe
Jul 13, 2004
Duplicate the layer, put it above and then change the blending mode to Multiply. You can then duplicate this layer several more times to make it darker if you need to.

Robert
PW
Pjotr Wedersteers
Jul 13, 2004
John Doe wrote:
Duplicate the layer, put it above and then change the blending mode to Multiply. You can then duplicate this layer several more times to make it darker if you need to.

Robert

Yup, thatta work. If the letters start to bleed a bit much you may use a curves layer on top of that to finetune the results.
I tend to have a slight favour for (too) dark scans in such cases. Rather have all the text and remove some darkened white paper bits afterwards than the other way around.

If you want a full white backrgound with text, you may wanna dupe the original layer, check the color channels and pick one that has the highest contrast. copy that to a new channel, and add a curves layer. push the black and whitepoints inward (black from left to right, and white vv) to leave a stark b/w contrasty image.
Check the RGB "channel" again and go back to layers. Add a new white layer under the layer you are going to work on. (Ctrl-click on new layer icon adds a layer below) Go back to the working layer and add a layer mask. Load the alpha channel as a selection and click on the layer mask. Then painting in black you’ll see the white bits turn to a full white. Work your way across the entire document. Correct mistakes by using white as a brush or using the eraser (make sure colours are set to default b/w (d on the keyb, x will swap them around))

if you rather have some realistic looking parchment as a background, load some nice papery picture you have laying about and put that just below the masked layer. Presto!
HTH
Pjotr

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