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Advice for editing old images


J

juco

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Any advice on how to do this better. before and after attached. The problem is the before image prints very dark on laser printer (even after printer adjustment) so I need to take where possible unnecessary background out of the image.
I currently use paintbrush tool which is time consuming as I have about 30 images to edit, I have also tried colour range but not very successful. Also tried `levels` and lightening it but that doesn't normally get the mottled background eliminated.

Any other ideas to speed up the process?

L-3.jpg
 
Is there any way you can post the original image in full size?
 
Hi @juco
You may not want to go here do to your time constraints, yet virtually any laser printer that is designed to print text and images should be able to print your image. It may be worthwhile to share that part of the workflow for forum members to examine with such information as
Is the laser printer a color laser printer or just B&W.
What is the brand and model number your are using
Are you using Photoshop to print to the laser printer or some other workflow.

You can certainly work around the problem by making your image closer to line drawings yet the root cause may be something in the workflow or settings.

Just a suggestion on a path to consider in parallel.
John Wheeler
 
John Wheeler,
The laser printer is a B&W Samsung 2240 and NOT printing direct from Photoshop. The document is in PDF format, I save individual pages to a jpeg format then edit in photoshop / save back to folder/ then print.
It appears to be the `mottled` part of the images which I think is due to the images being scanned and the original images being old. The printer then prints darker than what I see in photoshop, for crisply defined images I just use the level tool and lighten.
I believe the original document would be with old style printing whereby the images were made up from thousands of dots on to paper.
 
Hi @juco
I suggeset a few s steps to see if there is some hope about printing with the exiting images. This is a minor divide and conquer approach to see the location of the error.

1) Make sure you have the most recent printer drivers/software installed for your version of the OS
2) Make sure in the printer driver you are using maximum resolution (low resolution may cause an issue)l for all the test prints below
3) Print a page from the original document (before JPEG extraction and modification in Photoshop). Does this original PDF print well? If no, then this is a bigger issue than I thought as most laster printers with that resolution should be able to print B&W images. If it fails, see if you can print a test image with a grayscale image from another source. Sometimes the pdf settings can be the issue. If the print looks good proceed (again with higher resolution dirver settings
4) Extract your image to JEPG in your workflow and print directly from Photoshop to the Printer. Did the problem appear at this step? If yes, we can examine what is going on with PS and the direct printing path in PS
5) Save your image an reinsert in the PDF. Print the PDF at high resolution. Did it print well at high resolution. If yes, it may have been a resolutino issue. If no, the problem may be in howt he iage is saved back out from PS or how it is inserted back in the PDF.

Just some quick debugging thoughts and hope it is worth trying
John Wheeler
 
Update..........
I managed to get a better manual with images that I just need to lighten without all the editing so gives me the desired result.
I will be borrowing another printer in a few days so I can compare the printer settings to see if I can lighten them at the print stage, I can then decide if my printer needs looking at.
 
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