restoring documents

[srex]

I have done a lot of photo restoration but this is the first time for documents. I have several pieces of paper with handwriting. A few of them were written on very thin paper and the writing from one side is bleeding through. My thoughts are to lift the handwriting and replace the background paper. Is there any situation where this is not acceptable? I guess what I'm asking is replacing the paper a bad thing and are there any types of documents that you wouldn't want to replace the paper but take the time to clone and heal? Since it's digital it's not like I'm trying to recreate the original document but produce something that could be printed as a photograph or perhaps in a photo book.

[0lBaldy]

Susan, Welcome to RetouchPRO Hope you enjoy your stay here and make lots of friends.

Just my thoughts....
If it is not an ornate background or header or has seals on the Original and you just want a legible copy by lifting the text.... then doing whatever works to get prime results should be fine... heck even a typed version should work for that and not be as difficult... If the Original does have any of the above then lifting those should be considered also..

Keep in mind that if customers/friends/whomever wanted to be able to just read the text... they could be provided with a typed copy... instead what they generally want is a better copy of the original.... so keeping it as close to the original as it was when new, while maintaining the integrity of the document and any ornate background, header, seals, paper texture, colors, legibility, etc., should be the object of the retoucher/restorer

[spotter]

is it the ink which is bleeding through the paper or the lettering that is showing through when scanning?
If the latter, then back the document with black paper so that the front is scanned and the back cant be seen through it.

[srex]

Thanks for the replies. Since this is plain paper it's not a big deal to replace. Never thought of something that had seals or other special artifacts.

The ink has bled through, not showing through the scan. Still I'll have to remember that trick of using black paper when scanning. Actually I might give it a go anyway to see if that makes a difference to the scan.

I haven't had time to do anything more than scan the documents, perhaps this week I'll have more time.