Scanning pencil on black paper!

Moderator: MOD_nyhetsgrupper

Svar
Dave Hinz

Scanning pencil on black paper!

Legg inn av Dave Hinz » 05 apr 2005 18:47:43

My dad ran into something interesting yesterday - he's scanning in our
family's historical photos, that luckily he had my grandpa label years
ago. I'm getting some good leads and information, but that's not the point.

The point is, black pencil on the back of a black-paper picture holder
can be hard to read. But, he's having very good luck scanning it in,
going into photoshop & doing an "edge detect", and the writing comes
out very clearly. It looks visually strange, but it makes the writing
quite clear.

Two purposes here - one, to maybe save someone the eye strain of
trying to read black-on-black text, the other being - has anyone tried
edge detect or other digital filtering on, say, handwritten church
records? Or, are there other filters to apply (unsharp mask, or
despeckle, or something else)?

The question earlier today here about digital photos of documents got
me thinking. It's fine for taking a picture of the doc, but how about
making it more readable through image manipulation?

Dave Hinz

Lesley Robertson

Re: Scanning pencil on black paper!

Legg inn av Lesley Robertson » 05 apr 2005 22:04:33

"Dave Hinz" <DaveHinz@spamcop.net> schreef in bericht
news:3bg19uF6iqpjlU5@individual.net...
My dad ran into something interesting yesterday - he's scanning in our
family's historical photos, that luckily he had my grandpa label years
ago. I'm getting some good leads and information, but that's not the
point.

The point is, black pencil on the back of a black-paper picture holder
can be hard to read. But, he's having very good luck scanning it in,
going into photoshop & doing an "edge detect", and the writing comes
out very clearly. It looks visually strange, but it makes the writing
quite clear.

Two purposes here - one, to maybe save someone the eye strain of
trying to read black-on-black text, the other being - has anyone tried
edge detect or other digital filtering on, say, handwritten church
records? Or, are there other filters to apply (unsharp mask, or
despeckle, or something else)?

The question earlier today here about digital photos of documents got
me thinking. It's fine for taking a picture of the doc, but how about
making it more readable through image manipulation?

I've had some luck with memorial stones, removing one colour can sometimes

help to read stones... There's also an ëmboss"filter which has helped.
Must try your Dad's method on the stones - I have some I still can't read!
Lesley Robertson

Dave Hinz

Re: Scanning pencil on black paper!

Legg inn av Dave Hinz » 05 apr 2005 22:21:33

On Tue, 5 Apr 2005 23:04:33 +0200, Lesley Robertson <l.a.robertson@tnw.tudelft.nl> wrote:
"Dave Hinz" <DaveHinz@spamcop.net> schreef in bericht
news:3bg19uF6iqpjlU5@individual.net...

The question earlier today here about digital photos of documents got
me thinking. It's fine for taking a picture of the doc, but how about
making it more readable through image manipulation?

I've had some luck with memorial stones, removing one colour can sometimes
help to read stones... There's also an ëmboss"filter which has helped.
Must try your Dad's method on the stones - I have some I still can't read!

Have you tried a remote flash at a sharp angle to the stone? Get some
good shadows that way.

I saw an interesting article on slashdot a few months ago, about using four
images, with a flash from four different directions (above, right, below,
and left). Merge the images together, (obviously a tripod and photoshop or
similar are needed), and the shadows give good definition. I thought at
the time it'd be nice for gravestones, but haven't had a chance to try it.

CWatters

Re: Scanning pencil on black paper!

Legg inn av CWatters » 05 apr 2005 22:59:19

"Christopher Jahn" <xjahn@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns962F8D1233DC7xjahn@216.196.97.136...
Dave Hinz <DaveHinz@spamcop.net> wrote in
news:3bg19uF6iqpjlU5@individual.net:



The question earlier today here about digital photos of documents got
me thinking. It's fine for taking a picture of the doc, but how about
making it more readable through image manipulation?

I've used it for that purpose. Playing with brightnes, contrast, and
color rations can bring out script that's virutally unreadable.

Tweaking Gama correction in Irfanview (for example) can produce interesting
results.

L Covey

Re: Scanning pencil on black paper!

Legg inn av L Covey » 06 apr 2005 00:44:03

Lesley Robertson wrote:
"Dave Hinz" <DaveHinz@spamcop.net> schreef in bericht
news:3bg19uF6iqpjlU5@individual.net...

My dad ran into something interesting yesterday - he's scanning in our
family's historical photos, that luckily he had my grandpa label years
ago. I'm getting some good leads and information, but that's not the
point.

The point is, black pencil on the back of a black-paper picture holder
can be hard to read. But, he's having very good luck scanning it in,
going into photoshop & doing an "edge detect", and the writing comes
out very clearly. It looks visually strange, but it makes the writing
quite clear.

Two purposes here - one, to maybe save someone the eye strain of
trying to read black-on-black text, the other being - has anyone tried
edge detect or other digital filtering on, say, handwritten church
records? Or, are there other filters to apply (unsharp mask, or
despeckle, or something else)?

The question earlier today here about digital photos of documents got
me thinking. It's fine for taking a picture of the doc, but how about
making it more readable through image manipulation?


I've had some luck with memorial stones, removing one colour can sometimes
help to read stones... There's also an ëmboss"filter which has helped.
Must try your Dad's method on the stones - I have some I still can't read!
Lesley Robertson


Are you speaking of "photos" of memorial stones or the stones

themselves. I know this is an odd question, but just want to clarify.

Thanks,
Lani

Lesley Robertson

Re: Scanning pencil on black paper!

Legg inn av Lesley Robertson » 06 apr 2005 14:01:21

"L Covey" <ljcovey@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:7pF4e.524665$w62.34098@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
Lesley Robertson wrote:

I've had some luck with memorial stones, removing one colour can
sometimes help to read stones... There's also an ëmboss"filter which has
helped.
Must try your Dad's method on the stones - I have some I still can't
read!
Lesley Robertson


Are you speaking of "photos" of memorial stones or the stones themselves.
I know this is an odd question, but just want to clarify.

Photos thereof... removing a colour from the actual stone would be

vandalism.
Lesley Robertson

Nearl J Icarus

Re: Scanning pencil on black paper!

Legg inn av Nearl J Icarus » 12 apr 2005 07:40:36

In article <3bg19uF6iqpjlU5@individual.net>, DaveHinz@spamcop.net says...

The question earlier today here about digital photos of documents got
me thinking. It's fine for taking a picture of the doc, but how about
making it more readable through image manipulation?

Thanks for your suggestions. I've got some of my grandmother's tin pictures
that I've wanted to try and scan to see if I can read the signatures. Mom
divided the pictures up between the grandchildren and I asked for the ones
with the names on them, since I was the only one working on genealogy. I've
got a picture of my grandmother's grandmother. (-8

You're using a Mac, are you not? I see your 'xface' pic. The newsreader I use
is suppose to allow you to use your own but I haven't been able to get it to
work yet. (WinVN, Windows).

Dave Hinz

Re: Scanning pencil on black paper!

Legg inn av Dave Hinz » 12 apr 2005 15:31:35

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 01:40:36 -0500, Nearl J Icarus <nj_toothenbecker@hotmail.com> wrote:
In article <3bg19uF6iqpjlU5@individual.net>, DaveHinz@spamcop.net says...

The question earlier today here about digital photos of documents got
me thinking. It's fine for taking a picture of the doc, but how about
making it more readable through image manipulation?

Thanks for your suggestions. I've got some of my grandmother's tin pictures
that I've wanted to try and scan to see if I can read the signatures. Mom
divided the pictures up between the grandchildren and I asked for the ones
with the names on them, since I was the only one working on genealogy. I've
got a picture of my grandmother's grandmother. (-8

Haven't tried it on tintypes. The reflections might pose a challenge.
I'd be interested to know what you see.

You're using a Mac, are you not? I see your 'xface' pic.

Glad someone does - is it reasonbly good enough, and/or distracting, or
what do you think? You're the first person in years to comment on it.

The newsreader I use
is suppose to allow you to use your own but I haven't been able to get it to
work yet. (WinVN, Windows).

No clue. In this case, I'm on a linux box, but Mac is Unix these days so
it's all the same enough. Maybe there's a config file for your newsreader
that lets you insert an arbitrary header such as the X-face: one?

Dave Hinz

Duane Evenson

Re: Scanning pencil on black paper!

Legg inn av Duane Evenson » 12 apr 2005 18:15:15

Christopher Jahn wrote:
Dave Hinz <DaveHinz@spamcop.net> wrote in
news:3bg19uF6iqpjlU5@individual.net:



The question earlier today here about digital photos of documents got
me thinking. It's fine for taking a picture of the doc, but how about
making it more readable through image manipulation?


I've used it for that purpose. Playing with brightnes, contrast, and
color rations can bring out script that's virutally unreadable.


I've been using threshold in GIMP on scanned documents. You pick a color

level and everything darker it made black and everything lighter is made
white. Really works on those old yellowed documents with faded ink. Also
with a lot of newer stuff because I get some of the text on the other
side of the page coming through.

Svar

Gå tilbake til «alt.genealogy»