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Hello,
I'm trying to restore some antique books and magazines I have. I was wondering if anyone knows how to get rid of the dark color that is in some of the letters.
For example, I make the background white and use all of the "enhance photo" tools, but the closed letters like "o" or "d", etc. look like they're colored in. I don't know how to get that out without going over each letter, which would take forever.
I have Corel Paint Shop Pro X2.
Thank you!
Welcome to Talkgraphics. :)
If it is a solid color, maybe you could try using the magic wand to select the area inside the letter. You should be able to then hold down the shift key and click inside another letter to select it as well. You can do this to select all the necessary letters then fill the selections the color you want. I think that would work but there is probably an easier way that some else may know of.
Hope that helps.
Hi Joe,
Thanks for the information. But the only thing is that it would take so long that way. That would be good for the titles and headings, but these letters are filled all the way down the page.
Thank you anyway for trying to help out. And thanks for the welcome!
Hi welcome
can you post up an example of a page? difficult to comment without seeing what is involved :)
In older versions, you could 'select all', and then 'Selections->Modify->Select color range.' You could also select a small portion, and do 'Selections->Modify->Select similar.'
Hope that gets you started.
Thanks for all the responses. Here is a sample of what I'm talking about. See how the letters are filled in? It would take forever to retouch each one of those. It wouldn't be bad on the main title, but the rest of the text would take too long.
http://www.geocities.com/homemakingebooks/sample.jpg
coffeemom,
I think that using the XX4/XXP4 built in Photo Tool (P) and then the Brightness Levels Dialog will fix you right up. Take a look...
The result shown took about 30 seconds of playing.
IHTH,
HayTay
P.S. - I'm an idiot :rolleyes: (but you probably already knew that). I just realized that this is the Corel Paint Shop Pro topic area. I'll leave the post for now as I'm fairly sure that PSP has a similar feature that you can use. Hopefully this will jog your memory or get you started in the right direction. Then again, you could always try XaraXtreme since you now know it can be used to accomplish your task.
--> Moderators, delete or move as you see fit.
I'll crawl back to my cave now.
My apologies,
Harry
Thanks, Harry! That does look good! I'll see if I can find something similar in PSP or look into the XaraXtreme.
Adjust -> Color Balance -> Black and white points. Play with settings.
Or follow the advice in my first post--those methods will also work.
Hi
thanks for posting the example
to be honest if you have a lot of this sort of work to do then it would be worth looking at photoshop elements [trial version available - though there is a problem downloading from adobe I believe until July 1st]
one click in one of the affected areas with magic eraser ['contiguous' setting unticked] will turn all the affected areas transparent both with within and without of the letters - then a second click with the paint bucket tool [also 'contiguous' unticked plus foreground setting white] in one of the transparent areas will turn all of them white
if the areas of coloration vary significantly - it will be that much more work, whichever way you end up doing it - still worth looking at photoshop elements I would have thought, just end up doing more passes whichever program you use :)
David has covered the equivalent in PSP
it would be worth looking at the scanner settings too if there is more of this work to do
Even if the inside colors vary significantly, PSP can often do the job in one pass--it is simply a matter of finding an appropriate base color and tolerance.
yes :)
but it can take time to do that
I tried it in PS/E with the 'contiguous' unticked and white foreground colour set, and rest of settings on default, and it just did it - four clicks job done - no faf
this is PSP forum - I am not saying do not use it - I am saying if there is loads to do, photoshop will likely be quicker in the long run ;)
just as a further example of what I mean - I stuck some rough and ready color variation in here - the only difference was that it needed four clicks with the magic eraser, still with same settings
Hi David,
Thank you so much. I'm going to try those today. I appreciate all the help.
It isn't worth the cost of a new program. PSP works fine.
Ctrl-A, Selections->Modify->Select color range, pick black with a tolerance of 188, softness of 1, hit 'Delete', and you are done (as long as your background color is set to white). With your example, you still have to fill in the pixels you modified.
good solution David :)
So again, *please* stop giving recommendations about things you don't know. It is obvious that you haven't extensively done this task in PSP, and you were recommending that coffeemom buy another program because *you* knew how to do it in that program. That is completely irresponsible--pretending to be an expert when you aren't.Quote:
Originally Posted by handrawn
If you insist on taking that approach, at least say it something like: "I haven't done much of this in PSP, but in PSE you can do it in such and such a manner quite easily..." Let them know what you know, so that they aren't tempted to spend money when they don't have to.
*Please!*
that is not the point David
it would be quicker in photoshop - because you would not have to experiment with the settings - it would 'just do it'
You failed to mention that you need to play with the 'tolerance' in your PS solution, so your statement is incorrect. :rolleyes: You have to mess with settings in both programs. And, as in PSE, once you have the appropriate settings in PSP, you don't have to enter them again until you come across a new challenge. And in PSP, you can save the setting--I don't believe you can do that in PSE (but I may be wrong).Quote:
Originally Posted by handrawn
:rolleyes:
Well, if I may stick my oar in here, whilst agreeing with Steve that David's remarks were probably uncalled for, perhaps the spat should be continued by private message? (mmm, I'd like to see those messages) :)
Saludos,
Bob.
David:
I did the correction on the sample supplied in photoshop elements on default balance [tolerance] settings - did you use default in PSP?
Bob:
:D
enough - I have a life to live.....
Just tried your suggestion David. Works really slick. Will add that to my list of good helps for PSP. Nice job. :)
I've asked him to stop pretending to be an expert on topics he doesn't know about twice already. If my previous attempts haven't succeeded, I doubt that a PM is going to change his stance, as much as I wish it would. So I just try to be civil, and point out that his recommendation is potentially a wasteful cost to the OP, and ask nicely for change once again.Quote:
Originally Posted by iamtheblues
I have nothing against his helpful posts in the forums, and acknowledge that he is quite knowledgeable and helpful in some areas. Underneath it all, I do wish him the best.
David
Steve: I didn't use the default settings in PSP. So? Even in PS I would have played with the settings to see if it could be improved.
I'm glad you found it useful, Joe.
OK David peace :)
Everyone goes on on this forum about how wonderful xara is because it is so fast [despite the tortoise beating the hare as I recall] - do they get abuse for this?
All I said was that PS would be faster - and it would be worth trying out the trial - I stand by that - this is wasteful how? - if nothing else it is good experience ;)
$30 + shipping on Amazon for a used copy, when they already have something that works. ;) $100+s/h if they want a new copy from Adobe.Quote:
Originally Posted by handrawn
Yes, peace. :)Quote:
OK David peace :)
shalom :cool: