sal
Enthusiast
Jan 27, 2005, 4:03 PM
Post #2 of 9
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you can do this in a variety of ways. It depends on your skill level. The higher your skill level, the better your results are going to be.
First step is to make sure it's black text on whtie paper. It will make this easier and you can add color later if you wish. our main concern now is to extract the text and remove the background.
But what if there is color on your scan? maybe the paper has a slight yellow tint to it or the text color is something other than black. simple solution. You could desaturate image by going to IMAGE>>ADJUST>>DESATURATE.
there are 3 basic steps
1) get maximum contrast between text and paper
2) get a good selection of the background(or text)
3) remove the background(or move the isolated text to a new layer)
Achieving Maximum Contrast
There is a potential problem with extracting an image. If there is not much contrast between the text and paper, you will get lousy results. To fix this, use curves, levels or brightness/contrast to fix this issue. The white paper should be pure white(255,255,255) and the text should be pure black(0,0,0) I suggest you start with levels and tweak the controls until you get maximum contrast. Make sure the text still looks smooth and not jagged and click okay.
WAYS TO EXTRACT
1) one way is to use the magic wand tool(W). If the text is thin, the magic wand too might not be of much use to you. Also if there isn't much contrast, the magic wand tool won't be of much help. But if there is contrast and the text is thick, the magic wand tool might be a quick way to get the result.Select the white background with the magic wand and hit delete.
If the text is jagged and/or parts of the text is missing - try changing the "tolerance" setting to something higher. if a part of the bg is still intact, set the tolerance setting to something lower.
Alternatively you could also select the TEXT with your magic wand and copy the isolated text, over to a new layer. then either delete or hide the background layer(the scan) It's your choice. The only problem is this is going to require you to select each individual letter.
If you still are not happy with the results, undo what you did and try the next method.
2)Another popular way to extract is using the color range feature(SELECT>>COLOR RANGE) You would use your color picker to select the color of the text. Then mess around with the fuzziness. Once your selection looks good. press okay.
You will notice that the text has a selection on it(marching ants) Inverse your selection and click delete. This should delete the white paper and leave the text.
Again, if you wish you could use the color picker to select the background tweak the fuzziness, click okay and then hit delete to remove the background.
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There are more methods but they are more involved. i don't know your skill level in photoshop so I don't want to overwhelm you. Also if you can provide a picture of the scan and post it here, we can offer more tips and or suggestions.
good luck.
(This post was edited by sal on Jan 27, 2005, 4:05 PM)
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