Microfilm scan & cleanup in PS

[onceageordie]

Hi, I need some help with a new project.

I am trying to scan in some microfilm pages using a new Epson scanner, It doesn't have a film reader, but it gives me good enough results to think that with a bit of cleanup it should be usable. I want to end up with a Greyscale file at a high enough resolution to zoom in to read the "iffy" bits.

I am scanning initially with full 24 bit colour @ 2400dpi to extract as much information as possible-

In Photoshop (as I am a newbie!) I have tried the following -

Auto Levels
Auto Contrast
Desaturate
& Change to Greyscale

This gives a much better image but I feel sure that some of you out there could improve on things.

I have hundreds of these to do so I am looking for a simple way to improve things.

A portion of the original image is here for those who would like to try and help. (2Mb)

http://www.badongo.com/file/4406570

Many thanks.

 

[Gaussian]

Can't be improved a lot more than you already did, so you're doing just fine.

 

[perspixe]

You can try to play a bit with Filters>Surface Blur

Put the radius around 50 and then move the threshold around to find a right setting to keep the writing sharp. Then try different radiuses.

This way, and if this is what you want, you can get rid of the paper texture a bit, still keeping the text sharp.

But this will get rid of the paper texture and this might not be what you want.