Need to fix old text image

P
Posted By
philippepedersen
Jan 10, 2004
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1802
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8
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I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have an old document from the 60’s, which I scanned in but the text looks very pixel-ly and I need to increase the quality of the page.

I have tried darkening and lightning, etc., as well as changing contrast. But it is still too pixel-ly.

I found an option on the pull-down menus
(Filter>Stylize>Diffuse>Anisotropic) which combines the pixels together and makes them look more like real text, however, it also adds a bit of an undesirable twist to the text. Any ideas of another feature that will do what I want with the text?

Thanks.
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Bart van der Wolf
Jan 10, 2004
"Philippe Pedersen" wrote in message
SNIP
Any ideas of another feature that will do what I want with the text?

Hard to say without an example to view, but have you tried the Smart Blur filter, or on smaller selected parts the Dust and scratches filter?

Bart
JK
JP Kabala
Jan 10, 2004
If it’s black text on a solid neutral b/g, you can try a very small Gaussian blur (.5 to .7 pixel)
followed by unsharp mask and a threshold adjustment. Works sometimes, and all those
tools should be in Elements.
"Philippe Pedersen" wrote in message
I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have an old document from the 60’s, which I scanned in but the text looks very pixel-ly and I need to increase the quality of the page.

I have tried darkening and lightning, etc., as well as changing contrast. But it is still too pixel-ly.

I found an option on the pull-down menus
(Filter>Stylize>Diffuse>Anisotropic) which combines the pixels together and makes them look more like real text, however, it also adds a bit of an undesirable twist to the text. Any ideas of another feature that will do what I want with the text?

Thanks.
B
Bobs
Jan 10, 2004
On 9 Jan 2004 23:53:53 -0800, (Philippe
Pedersen) wrote:

I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have an old document from the 60’s, which I scanned in but the text looks very pixel-ly and I need to increase the quality of the page.

I have tried darkening and lightning, etc., as well as changing contrast. But it is still too pixel-ly.

I found an option on the pull-down menus
(Filter>Stylize>Diffuse>Anisotropic) which combines the pixels together and makes them look more like real text, however, it also adds a bit of an undesirable twist to the text. Any ideas of another feature that will do what I want with the text?

Thanks.
I’m surprised that your scanner fails to support an adequate resolution for this. Unless you’re scanning at 200 dpi or higher, you could well expect pixellization. If this is not the case, then why do you think the image appears pixellized?

If you’re not interested in preserving the exact nature of this document, you could try scanning it in with FineReader, it’s pretty good at recognizing imperfect text, and graphic images can be included. Then you’ll have a document you can apply any text you wish to.
N
nemlidaka
Jan 10, 2004
Your problem probably lies at the source – rescan it, preferably at 600 dpi. You can always reduce the resolution and file size later.

Maris

Philippe Pedersen wrote:
I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have an old document from the 60’s, which I scanned in but the text looks very pixel-ly and I need to increase the quality of the page.

I have tried darkening and lightning, etc., as well as changing contrast. But it is still too pixel-ly.

I found an option on the pull-down menus
(Filter>Stylize>Diffuse>Anisotropic) which combines the pixels together and makes them look more like real text, however, it also adds a bit of an undesirable twist to the text. Any ideas of another feature that will do what I want with the text?

Thanks.

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WharfRat
Jan 11, 2004
I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have an old document from the 60’s, which I scanned in but the text looks very pixel-ly and I need to increase the quality of the page.

I have tried darkening and lightning, etc., as well as changing contrast. But it is still too pixel-ly.

I found an option on the pull-down menus
(Filter>Stylize>Diffuse>Anisotropic) which combines the pixels together and makes them look more like real text, however, it also adds a bit of an undesirable twist to the text. Any ideas of another feature that will do what I want with the text?
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Could you scan through Acrobat and use OCR, then replace the text … or, do you need the "old" look?
MSD
T
tacitr
Jan 11, 2004
I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have an old document from the 60’s, which I scanned in but the text looks very pixel-ly and I need to increase the quality of the page.

You scanned at too low a resolution. Re-scan the page at a higher resolution.

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P
philippepedersen
Jan 12, 2004
(Tacit) wrote in message news:…
I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have an old document from the 60’s, which I scanned in but the text looks very pixel-ly and I need to increase the quality of the page.

You scanned at too low a resolution. Re-scan the page at a higher resolution.

Thanks all. Some of the documents I had were initially scanned by someone else, then it was passed along to another person (a copy of the documents), then I received a copy, either via fax or having then scanned that in. So the chain of source is already crippled, not to mention the documents were from the 60s/70s.

I have tried now the gaussion blur, this seems pretty good. I then tried playing with the contrast and levels a bit, which helped. I will try Bart’s and JP’s method as well. I’ll keep you informed.
L
llutton
Jan 12, 2004
I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have an old document from the 60’s, which I scanned in but the text looks very pixel-ly and I need to increase the quality of the page.

1. Scan at a higher resolution.
2. A lot of times, increasing the brightness
some, and the contrast more, helps.
3. You can try the Gaussian Blur followed
by Unsharp Mask.
Lynn

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