Make typewriter text on old scan more stand out

[Guest]

Hi,

i have a few scans of documents which are 20-30 years old. Some text on this  documents is written on a typewriter. Now im trying to make this text to be more clear in relation to the background.

I tried to to this using Curves and Levels. The text is getting darker as i want it, but also the background changes which is what i dont want, because if i do this on a rectangular selection it is visible. Curves is quite ok, but it still changes the background to much in my opinion. Is there a way only to make the text more black without changing the background much? You can view the original text and my tries here i full resolution here: http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/283/inputo.jpg

 

Edited December 27, 2012 by quickpost

[pdnnoob]

Try this:

1. Duplicate the layer so you have two copies of the typewriter text

2. On the top layer, run the threshold plugin (from Ed Harvey's plugin pack). Adjust the sliders so that the text is black and most of the background is white.

3. Set the layer blend mode to Reflect

4. Flatten the image

[Ego Eram Reputo]

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