Edit bad scanned texts

I don't know how much it makes sense to you guys but it happens a lot that you have either a scanned text or a picture of the text which does not have a good quality.

It has a possibly dark background and the text fond is not as continuous and colorful as you expect (you know what I mean like badly printed pages by a cartridge which needs cleaning!!!)

so I know a Photoshop expert can probably get over it but is there any handy easy-to-learn tool that I can use for this purpose? I have so many pages like this ....

Or if you are a graphics expert, is there any simple steps I can do to make it better like reducing or increasing something special like contrast or whatever? I played around it for a while but didn't solve it ....

or in other words, a simple way to whiten the background and darken the fonts...

Thank you

get new [proper - real - legit :p] cartridges
and re-scan the dud ones
there are lots of editing apps out there
but it is the same today as it ever was

SISO
**** in **** out :eek:
basically if the font isn't readable in the original, it isn't going to get much better by scrubbing it
it CAN be done
but probably not by the likes of us mere mortals :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by foxyloxley

get new [proper - real - legit :p] cartridges

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LOL

well it's pictures taken by iPhone not scanned things actually ... I got it from a friend of mine and I don't have access to the original material :( but seriously I've had this problem so many times before....

foxy~, unfortunately, is spot on here. :(

The basic rule of photography (hey, I developed and printed my first film 50 years ago! ::birthday) is that if it isn't in the original, you cannot generate it by normal optical manipulation methods. Most of the free or low cost photo-editing software you get is just emulating the old optical methods we used to use ;)

You can adjust size, contrast, resolution (grain) and tone, but if the original is blurred then that's your lot.

Now, if you are prepared to spend the money, you can get software than will scan the image and use various algorithms to "guess" what should have been there and add it in. I guess you could Google for "digital image enhancement" and the like, as there might be something half-decent out there that is free or reasonable?

You might also try Irfranview, which has some correction features in it, but don't expect miracles for free :D

http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm

EDIT:

Text, particularly printed text, is much easier, given that there is a known and finite number of solutions so it is just a case of guessing the most likely. A good example would be CAPTCHA cracking algorithms and software, which use these techniques.

Have u guys seen the new app coming in photoshop that unblurs images, its insane?

http://therandomfact.com/adobe-unvei...-taken/229934/

there are other pages showing information.

Very interesting Cider,

What it is claiming to do is use an algorithm to calculate and correct camera shake. Whilst this is one cause of blurred images it is not the only one, and is very specific.

boyboy is talking about cellphone images. I don't think that camera shake is an issue there as much as poor lens quality, low megapixels and most common................ greasy fingerprints on the little lens.

With the poor lens and greasy fingerprints you have a chance because you have the full image to work on. With a low megapixel count or badly taken picture you generally do not, so the image enhancement algorithms have to be a lot more sophisticated, as they are actually adding stuff that isn't there in the first place.

do you look at the image in 'print preview' first too see if it's set for 'fit image to page' and basically see what it's going to look like or just print it?

just for grins and giggles, what kind of printer do you have.


nihil. doing it for 50 years! when did you get older than i?