how to select italics text

[javier]

Hi I have an old document I´m trying to restore. The text is writen with italics letter, and the background is very dirty. There is a lot of text to process.
Is there any "rigth way" or tool to select the text so I can extract and paste it on a new background?

I enclose a selection of the document I am working with, so yyou can see wht I refer to.
Thank you very much

[TommyO]

Javier,
Selecting text is never easy; the basic tools often don't select enough due to the variation in the letters. One way is to closely examine the color makeup of the letters, versus the surrounding area/paper. In RGB you don't notice enough difference. However, in CMYK you do !

What is different ? The letters contain much more black (K), whereas the surrounding area contains little to none.

So, I converted the document to CMYK (1st image), then added a Color Mixer adj. layer and pumped up the K (2nd image).

From there I knew there was enough concentration to use another tool, like the Color Range selection. I preselected black (ctrl-D), then openned Select>Color Range and increased the fuzziness. I then selected just one other pixel in the text. That gave me a sufficient selection to work with.

At that point you have a few options. I chose to simply make that selection a mask and paint on another layer in Overlay mode with a black brush. This allows the brush to only affect pixels that already contain black, thus not affecting the background pixels if present (3rd image).

I'm sure there are many other good ideas out there. I think that studying the color attributes are quite common. How you choose to enhance the tonal differences is where the differences come in.

[Markzebra]

Javier - first thing you need is to make sure you shot the image properly. You really want a clear, high res capture - with as much variation in color in the capture as you can get, you'll find that its the INK COLOR itself which will give the clearest definition between that and the paper - if you can process the file initially using Camera RAW, you will be amazed what can be retrieved. Some of Tommy's techniques, in particular channel mixing, will help you when you get into Photoshop with the processed image.

But again, the shot is the key

[javier]

Tommy, thank you very much for your answer. I am afraid I did not understand some of your instructions, as my knowledge of photoshop is not good enough.
I would really appreciate if you can give me as many details of the steps to follow as possible.
So my comments:

TommyO:
Selecting text is never easy; the basic tools often don't select enough due to the variation in the letters. One way is to closely examine the color makeup of the letters, versus the surrounding area/paper. In RGB you don't notice enough difference. However, in CMYK you do !

What is different ? The letters contain much more black (K), whereas the surrounding area contains little to none.

So, I converted the document to CMYK (1st image), then added a Color Mixer adj. layer and pumped up the K (2nd image).

[Javier]: I converted it to CMYK but when tryng to create a "color mixer "adj layer did not find this possibility. I found : Color balance option, is it the same?
How do I pump up the black (k) ?
From there I knew there was enough concentration to use another tool, like the Color Range selection. I preselected black (ctrl-D), then openned Select>Color Range and increased the fuzziness. I then selected just one other pixel in the text. That gave me a sufficient selection to work with.
At that point you have a few options. I chose to simply make that selection a mask and paint on another layer in Overlay mode with a black brush. This allows the brush to only affect pixels that already contain black, thus not affecting the background pixels if present (3rd image).
[Javier]: I am in the first part, then I will try this second one.
I'm sure there are many other good ideas out there. I think that studying the color attributes are quite common. How you choose to enhance the tonal differences is where the differences come in.[/QUOTE]

Best regards, and thank you very much
Javier

[javier]

Hi Maarkzebra, thank you very much, but the problem is that I only have the jpg ones, and I have returned the original document to the owner, so I have to work with the jpg ones.
Best regards,
Javier

Originally Posted by Markzebra

Javier - first thing you need is to make sure you shot the image properly. You really want a clear, high res capture - with as much variation in color in the capture as you can get, you'll find that its the INK COLOR itself which will give the clearest definition between that and the paper - if you can process the file initially using Camera RAW, you will be amazed what can be retrieved. Some of Tommy's techniques, in particular channel mixing, will help you when you get into Photoshop with the processed image.

But again, the shot is the key

[TommyO]

Sorry Javier, sometimes I don't check my own typing enough.

1. Image>Mode>CMYK Color (this converts, as you did);
2. Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer (not "Color" mixer as I mistyped);
3. Within that adj. layer I simply moved the Black slider to maximum.

You can play with the other sliders, but they don't represent as significant a color as black did in the text. The "constant" slider did improve things a little when moved back to -33%. You can also do this same step several times (repeat it) to enhance the effect.

There a numerous ways to work with parts of an image when trying to enhance dark areas. If the dark areas are not mixed up with other elements, then many blending modes allow for darkening only pixels with 50% or lower brightness. My suggestion of using a mask is just an easy way of doing that. You could also copy the layer, convert the black & white (using another channel mixer layer & click the monochrome box), then use a black brush in a blend mode like overlay and paint on that layer. You'll have to paint several times (multiple click the mouse) to see any results on the text.

[javier]

Hi Tommy, thnk you very much for your answer. It is much clearer now. I have been playing with it and it is improving quite a lot. So I will keep working on that direction-.
Once again , thank you very much for your help
Javier