Enhancing Picture Qualities

[Giannis]

I've scanned my written signature and would now like to treat the picture a little. The first problem is that the paper I used is greyish in the scan. Can I replace the greyish background for a white one (which I later can make transparent)?

The second thing is that the signature looks a bit "pixely" when imported in Xara. Is there something I can do about that?

I'm attaching two images to this post for you to see what I'm talking about - the picture looks nice in windows picture viewer but it's pixely in Xara.

[Sammy]

Giannis
Hi

Perhaps there is a better, and easier, way of doing what you want but this is how I would do it.

Import your scanned bitmap into a new document
Then with the Shape Editor Tool draw a shape round your signature. This will let you smooth out the jaggies.
Once you have done that, Select the shape, and Export it as a transparent PNG file.
Because the new shape is a vector shape the exported image should be quite smooth.

Hope it works

Sammy

[handrawn]

check that the view quality is on maximum in xtreme

I find that the grey issue with the scan is best fixed by scanning at 24bit color depth and using the scanner settings to get high black-white contrast - but this depends on what if any adjustments the scanner has

you can trace it - that should actually trace well I would have thought

[wizard509]

The only real success I had getting what you want was to hand trace the signature using the shape editor tool.. I think this is what Sammy meant. You will have to be careful so as to avoid sharp corners, but the results are very clean and spectacular.
First I imported your signature into Xtreme then made a new layer and made the original layer not editable but still showing. This kept the two images separate. Then you can export the traced image as a png,
I suppose there is a better way but that is the way I did it.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Larry

[gwpriester]

Sammy -- That is a good solution if you are willing to invest a lot of time trying to capture the thick and thin of the stroke as a vector object.

Not being as industrious, I would being the scan into Xtreme.

Open the Photo Tool > Brightness Levels dialog.

Drag the White Point eyedropper over the gray background. This should make the background white.

If need be, add a small amount of Blur to soften the edges, though I suspect Steve's comment about maximum view quality will fix that.

You could also try the new Live Effect Tool > Color Filter > Threshold dialog. Threshold breaks the image down to a 2-bit (black or white) image. Play with the Threshold slider until you are satisfied with the signature.

Create a Bitmap Copy, True Color at 300dpi. Apply a small amount of Blur.

Gary

[Giannis]

Thank you for your ideas, I appreciate it!

I tried tracing it - and it turned out really well. To shape it by hand was very difficult and also very time consuming.

Now I have another question for you...

I've done it several times before`but I seem to have forgotten - how do you export a picture so that the background is transparent?

[Giannis]

Gary, I missed your post.

Yes, it was the view quality which made the picture look unsharp or "pixely".

I think a regular bitmap trace was enough this time actually but I'll see if your way can enhance it even more.

[steve.ledger]

I'd go along with Garys method, but use MEHDI's *Fine Threshold* instead. No blurring necessary & no pixelation.
It's free.

To export to raster with transparent BG, choose PNG type and select color depth: True Color+Alpha

[Giannis]

I get an error message when trying to do that:

"Xara could not export an image map because no objects were suitable. Try applying Web Adresses to objects or making shapes closed"

The image saves but it doesn't seem to be transparent (if I import it back into Xara then it still has a white background).

Any ideas what this could be?

I thought I did some graphics for my old website that were transparent, but I think I saved them as GIFs. Is that possible?

[steve.ledger]

Nothing should be entered under the image map tab.

Make certain that True Color+Alpha is selected under the palette option tab.