Adjusting a grayscale scan so it's black and white

A client sent me a grayscale scan of a line drawing with small text. The lines and text, which should be black, are gray. And the background, which should be white, is a light gray.
The lines should be 100% black, but I'll take what I can get. I fiddled with curves and contrast and stuff, but when I'd get the background adjusted so it was completely white, then the lines weren't dark enough.
And of course converting to a bi-level bitmap made the lines and text all pixelly and horrible.
FWIW, this will be offset printed, so it needs to be high resolution.
Suggestions?
TIA,
Marlene

Up the resolution 2 x using bicubic smoother (if your version of PS has it, otherwise just bicubic).
Then, I usually blur the drawing slightly (maybe .5 - 1 pixel) so that I can add gain to the lines if they are too fine. You might want to avoid the blur step as you have text; test it and see. Also, blurring helps smooth out pixel jaggies if the original image is too low a resolution.
Then use image.. adjust.. levels to make a "bitmap" by pulling together the black and white sliders of the input levels. You don't want the sliders to touch (as Bill's threshold will do), you just want them close together so you're controlling where the bitmap will "break". Make sure to zoom in and inspect your image. You might use a levels adjustment layer for easier tweaking.
You're shooting for a bitmap image of between 800 and 1200 ppi/dpi at print size, so do the math and up-res again (using bicubic smoother) to the correct resolution. Then make the image a bi-level bitmap (image.. mode.. bitmap).

Similar Messages

  • Scans coming out in black and white vertical lines

    I have Mac OS X / v. 10.9.5 and an HP ENVY 4500 printer/scanner.I have had this set up for 6 months without a problem, but the first scan I tried to do after putting in new ink cartridges for printing are coming up like this: http://www.screencast.com/t/qkhaKNOd Help!

    Hi , Thanks for providing the excellent screen shots. I see that you are having issues scanning, they are coming out black with vertical lines. I will certainly do my best to help you. I see by the screen shot that the AirPrint driver is selected for the default printer. Did you download and install the latest drivers?  HP ENVY 4500 series Full Feature Software and Drivers. If the newest drivers are installed, delete the AirPrint driver and add the Envy 4500 drivers.Click the Apple menu and then click System Preferences. Click Printers & Scanners, highlight the printer name on the left side and delete it and add the printer name back in from the list. Click the - sign to delete the driver and then click the + sign to add the driver, you will need to to click the drop down, to select the printer's name to add it in. Make sure the printer is connected directly to a wall outlet. (don't use a power hub or a surge protector) This ensures the printer is receiving full power and may help this situation. Try scanning again. If you appreciate my efforts, please click the 'Thumbs up' button below. If there is anything else I can help you with, just let me know. Thank You.

  • I have imported a color picture and trying to use the adjustment brush to turn the background black and white and it isn't working.  I have Lightroom 5.  Any suggestions?

    Hello - I have Lightroom 5.  I have imported a color photo.  I am trying to use the Adjustment Brush to change the background to Black and White and leave a portion of the photo in color.  When I begin painting the photo with the Saturation at -100 I don't see any changes to the photo.  I push the "O" key and still nothing.  I have tried to reset the photo, restarted Lightroom and still nothing.  Please help.

    Set Flow and Density of the brush to 100
    Reduce it where you want the effect to blend.
    Bruce

  • Black and White Adjustments

    I scanned a couple of black and white photos, opened the TIF and cut and paste them into new documents. However when I try to use the Black and White adjustment in CS3 its greyed out. The image is Gray and 8-bit. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious but I can't work out what it is.
    Thanks for any help! :)
    -=Tim=-

    RGB color images are often best converted to monochrome by the Channel Mixer. That's always my first tool. Some images fair better in Black & White, but all too often that filter leaves telltale signs like halos at the edge of color ranges, and often the overall tonality is better from Channel Mixer. CMYK images are almost always better off converted to RGB first before taking them down to monochrome. The channel splitting from the black generation almost always throws the process off with less than complimentary results.

  • Black and white disaster!!!!!!

    everytime i put a picture into black and white then i try to remove the black and white to make a little color show IT DOESNT WORK!!! please help me!!!!

    Hi Abigail and welcome to the forum.
    I don't know how you are tutning the image to B&W, but if you want to have parts of the image in colour, you need to use a B&W Adjustment layer.
    Layer > New Adjusment layer > Black and White
    Then use the paint brush with black as the forground colour, and paint over the areas you want to have full colour.  You need to make sure that the layer mask is selected in the B&W adjusment layer.  You can tell because a) it will have a double outline, and b) if you have it wrong, you'll be paint onto your image.
    The technique you are trying to use is called 'Colour Pop'.  So you can use that term to search for help if you need a tutorial.

  • Iphoto doesn't recognize black and white jpg files

    I scanned in an old black and white photo and it is a jpg file. When I try to drag it into iphoto it doesn't recognize the file. I tried changing the file by going to soft proof with profile, checking RGB, saving it and re-importing it but no luck. When I reopen the file, I noticed that my settings never saved in preview.  How do I permanently change this files settings?

    a common problem is that you don't have permission to upload those files, but it is an easy fix
    1) Finder
    2) Users(it should have the account name on it)
    3) pictures
    4) right click on iphoto library then click info
    5 on the bottom of the new window there should be a sharing and permissions tab
    6) make sure you have permission to read & write
    The only other problem I can think is that you are having problems with hard drive space. if so you might want to clean up your hard drive to free up some space. please let me know if that worked for you.

  • Grayscale scanning comes into Acrobat as black and white

    I am trying to scan photos and other documents that have grays in them, using Acrobat Pro 9.
    They are coming in as if I had specified black and white.
    What am I missing?
    Thanks in advance.
    PS Sorry about the wierd screen name. I had tried a number of nice ones, including my old Adobe user name, but they were all rejected.

    Following up to see if anyone has some solid ideas on how this might be happening.
    Thanks!

  • I scanned some black and white negatives into my computer (iMac) where they were stored aas positives on the hard disc. When I import them to iPhoto they turn back into negatives. How do I change them into positives for printing?

    I have scanned some black and white negatives into my computer(iMac) where they are stored on the hard disc as positives.When I import them into iPhoto to print they turn back into negatives.How do I turn them back into positives?

    That's because you scanned them as B/W photos and iPhoto 08 doesn't support the grayscale color profile.  You can either rescan them as color photos or export them as originals out of iPhoto to a folder on the desktop and applhy this Automator application, Convert to JPG and Embed sRGB Profile, on them and then remimport into iPhoto. You can download it from  Toad's Cellar .  Be sure to read the warning on the website about not applying it on your only copies.
    OT

  • Adobe 9 Black on White Document Scans to PDF Invert Black to White and vice versa! Not Good!

    I have the same problem as TexasLawyer (Jul 30 2009) whose question was not answered nor was there any answer to a commenter who said he has the same problem ("I have an old HP LaserJet 3330 multifunction printer, and prefer scanning documents out of Adobe Acrobat rather than the software that came with the scanner.  However, after upgrading to Acrobat 9 Professional, the scans result in negative images.  I tried using the option in Acrobat to create negative images, hoping that that would result in a positive, but it didn't work. I'm using Windows XP, also.")
    Me too. Except I am running XP as a virtual machine in a MAC (Snow Leopard). I "upgraded" to Acrobat 9 from a functioning Acrobat  6 (worked fine with my setup to make correct B&W pdf's from scanned B&W documents on the HP 3330 before I installed Adobe 9--I got updates immediately and am at version 9.1.3) butthe  Acrobat 9.1.3 scans on the HP 3300 invert white to black and black to white. The printer option box to invert black and white images was unchecked.  I checked it and ran the scan again but same result--white of paper document is black in pdf and black is white in pdf. I can scan the B on W document using grayscale and get B on W but the file is too large and unacceptable due to smudges picked up with gray scale.
    Can't understand how so basic a use of Adobe is this messed up.This has to be a common problem since many many users scan black on white documents to pdf. Does anyone have a solution to this? It is critical in my profession.
    Thanks in advance to you problem solvers out there that can solve this for me and hte others in my boat who search these forums looking for the answer to this issue.
    HavePulse
    Oct 8, 2009

    I have an HP6010 scanner (sheet feed) that is used to scan multiple page documents. If I use the WIA scanner option I cannot select page size and the scanner defaults to legal size. On the other hand if I use the Twain driver I get negative images on my scans. I just installed Acrobat X Pro and the same thing is happening. I was using Acrobat 9. In fact in duplex mode the scanner outputs a negative image every other page, and a standard image on the alternate pages. Either way I am frustrated. I can't remember when the problem began, but I believe I was running XP SP2 and Acrobat 7 or 8.
    Ironically, if I push the scan to PDF button on the scanner, which uses an HP utility, it comes out fine. All pages are in positive mode.
    I did try scanning in color even though the document is black and white. I believe that the scan was fine. No negative images, but scanning in color is like watching the sun go down.
    I thought it was Vista and System 7, then I was told that it had to be a scanner issue and that I needed to talk to HP. However, if the scanner functions properly on its own, with the HP utilities, then it has to be Acrobat.

  • A black and white photo RGB or grayscale whats the best?

    a black and white photo scan it as RGB or grayscale whats the best?

    grayscale image would have smaller image size. And in Photoshop Elements you can always convert grayscale images to RGB.
    Thus I would advice to scan the photograph in grayscale.

  • Can't import Scanned Black and white photos to iphoto

    Issue : When importing a *Scanned, Black and white, jPG* image to iphoto get an error message
    Error message stats " The following file could not be imported. (The file is in an unrecognized format.)
    Solution: Im not an expert but I think it's the scanner driver and the color profile it uses. Changing the color setting to RGB or color or changing the file type from JPG to Tiff may help. If you have already scanned the photos or if changing the settings do not help the follow the instructions to fix the photos.
    1. Locate the Remove.app Script
    Location is : Macintosh HD - Library folder - Colorsync Folder - Scripts folder- Remove script
    2. Select all of the photos and drag and drop the photos on top of the Remove script. The photos will immediately be ready to import to iphoto and will still be the same location they where dragged from.
    Tip: place the photos in a folder on the desktop then select all ( command-A ) the photos with the issue. This may make it easier to drag and drop onto the Remove script

    Gail:
    Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The reason you're getting that black thumbnail and full sized image is that iPhoto does not support the grayscale profile Dot Gain 20% that grayscale scanning embeds in those photos. You're best bet is to scan them as color. They will still look the same but have the RGB color mode and sRGB color profile that iPhoto can support.
    TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
    I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
    Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

  • My Envy 7645 does not have the grayscale option in advanced set up to print in black and white

    My Envy 7645 does not have the grayscale option in advanced set up to print in black and white

    Hi , Welcome to the HP Forums! I see that your HP Envy 7645 does not have the grayscale option in advanced set up to print in black and white, on Windows 7. I am happy to help!  It is possible, that you may only have the basic driver installed, instead of the full feature software and drivers. I would recommend to try our HP Print and Scan Doctor first, to see if ti can resolve the issue automatically. Otherwise, please try the following steps:  Uninstall the software. Uninstalling the Printer Software.Clean boot the computer. How to perform a clean boot in Windows.Disable any Antivirus programs. Disable Antivirus software.Disable any firewall programs. Turn Windows Firewall on or off.Create a new user account. Managing User Accounts and Logins (Windows 7).Reinstall using the HP Printer Install Wizard for Windows. Hope this helps!  “Please click the Thumbs up icon below to thank me for responding.”

  • Print in Black and White, NOT GRAYSCALE!

    Hello,
    I'm trying to print on my Mac in Black and White -- NOT grayscale.  The printer I'm using is a thermal printer that prints on heat-sensitive card-stock (a DataMax E-4203 printer) and when I print bar-codes on there the edges of the bar-codes are "fuzzy" as the Mac tries to convert it into a grayscale image instead of a pure black-and-white image.  With the edges being fuzzy instead of crisp, the bar-code scanner device I have simply cannot read the bar-codes.  If I use the software on a Windows machine, it prints the bar-codes perfectly, because in Windows I can set the printer to be Black and White, instead of Grayscale..
    So, on a Mac (Mac Pro, OS X 10.7.3) how do I set it to print in pure Black and White, not Grayscale?
    Thanks for any help you can give me,
    Laurence MacNeill
    Mableton, Georgia, USA

    You're taking a rather large loss on a new computer and spending the money on another one to fix one issue on an obscure piece of hardware? Do this instead.
    1) Cancel the order on the Dell.
    2) Use Boot Camp to install Windows on your Mac Pro. WAY less expensive to buy a copy of Win 7 to run on your Mac than the money you're planning to flush down the drain.
    3) Get on the lazy butts of the company that make your thermal printer to write a Mac driver that has all of the same settings and features of the Windows driver. Which may not be easy as their site marks the printer you have as discontinued, though still supported.
    DataMax has one heck of a crappy site. I've looked around a dozen pages and can't find something as simple as print drivers to download.
    Yes, DataMax's web-site is awful... But they don't support the Mac at all, so even if their web-site was great, you'd never find Mac drivers to download...  The Mac driver for this printer comes from a company called the Peninsula Group, and they write drivers for dozens of different thermal printers...  They claim that they cannot write a driver that has all the features of the DataMax Windows driver, because of limitations of the CUPS printing system on the Mac...  I claim that's B.S., but how am I going to prove otherwise?
    I considered running the Mac in Windows BootCamp mode all the time -- but then what's the point in owning a Mac?  Originally I was happy to be making the switch from PC to Mac...  But everything (not just printing, but nearly everything I do) is more difficult on a Mac...  Owning this machine has been the worst computing experience I've ever had...  No joke..  I've never had such trouble doing what I want to do...  Nothing works the way it should work.  Nothing.
    If I had been using Macs all along, then perhaps I'd feel differently...  But everything is so different on a Mac, that I just can't seem to get used to it...  For crying out loud, the Home and End keys don't even work right!!  I hit End and I expect the cursor to go to the end of the LINE, not the end of the DOCUMENT!  (End of the document is what Ctrl+End is for, dammit!)  What the **** is up with that?!  And scrolling is wrong, too...  It scrolls up when I pull down on the mouse-scroll.  Everything is backwards on the Mac...  I've truly grown to hate it the more I use it...  I'll not be buying another Mac, if I can help it...  Wish I'd never bought this one...  Call it a very expensive lesson learned...
    L.

  • Problem in scanning black and white documents using acrobat 9.0 pro.

    when i select file from the menu bar -create pdf-scanner-black and white docment,  the logos and images from that page appear as black boxes. I have tried it with different scanners of same model and with different pages and on different machines. I have windows xp pro. Can someone please tell what to do to overcome this problem.Its really urgent....Thank you in advance..

    The problem lies with the settings in your scanner's settings. I'd suggest trying to scan as greyscale rather than B&W.

  • Trying to turn the background black and white in lightroom 5. Using the adjustment brush. It isn't working.

    Trying to turn the background black and white in lightroom 5. Using the adjustment brush. It isn't working.

    Set Flow and Density of the brush to 100
    Reduce it where you want the effect to blend.
    Bruce

Maybe you are looking for

  • Can't Transfer Files to External Hard Drive Anymore

    I have a Toshiba External hard drive, 1 TB, (I've only used 140.51 GB) that I have been saving files and photos to.  A window would pop up asking me what I wanted to use the hard drive for, and I always click decide later.  The other day I accidental

  • Acrobat Pro 9 - Flashes covered up info. How do I stop that?

    I'm trying to cover up information using the triangle tool in Acrobat Pro 9. Then I flatten the document. But when my doc is opened by me or anyone else, the info I covered up flashes for about a second, revealing confidential information. How do I k

  • Unable To Set Workgroup or Computer Description

    Hi, I've got a issue where windows 8 won't let me set a workgroup.  This all started when I was unable to open a webpag with the web address and but could get to a webpage with the IP address. I came across a article that with the same symptoms and t

  • Where are Presentation Server Privileges stored?

    Hi Does somebody know where the presentation server privileges are stored? I know how to change them in obiee (f.e. access to dashboards, subject areas) but don't see where these settings are stored. Could it be that they are stored directly in the c

  • IRM Instalation

    Hi all, Can anyone tell me what is the best installation of IRM server. My server needs to be open on the internet, so that outside people can use it. I know that it needs to be in dzm. How many servers do i need? Only one for the database and IRM an