Skip to main content
Smoothjunk
Smoothjunk
Participant
September 8, 2016
Answered

How to change the background color after converting images to text

  • September 8, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 1136 views

I scanned an old book, then converted the images to text. I had no issues with that process. Now I would like to make the text easier to read by swapping out the old yellowish background to white, but I am not sure about the best approach to this endeavor.  I attempted to simply change out the background color to white in Acrobat, but that did not take. I did not edit the text after I converted it (via OCR). I assume adobe interprets the yellowish background as an image and the OCR process did not actually convert the text to "real" vector text, but just made it easier to modify it. When I change the background to white, it is not visible because the yellowish background is an image on top of the background.  Or am I way off?

The book is just text, with a few black and white illustrations, diagrams, etc. What would be the easiest process to convert the text to actual text and remove the background yellowish "images" so if I wanted to change the text to white and the background to black, for example, I could? Then easily change it again to, say, brown text and a sepia background?  I hope I'm making sense.   

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Smoothjunk

I've found an answer to remove the yellowish background on most of the pages (and I feel pretty dumb I did not find it earlier).  The yellowish background is indeed an image.  I can just delete it.  But I can only delete it if there is just pure text on the page.  If I delete the background image with an illustration, the illustration is deleted too -- the background and illustration is one image.

I will have to do a little leg work to edit the background image that is tied to an illustration, and save it as a .png so the white space is not affected by the background color I choose.  This is a little time-consuming...unless someone else has a better solution?

1 reply

Smoothjunk
SmoothjunkAuthorCorrect answer
Participant
September 8, 2016

I've found an answer to remove the yellowish background on most of the pages (and I feel pretty dumb I did not find it earlier).  The yellowish background is indeed an image.  I can just delete it.  But I can only delete it if there is just pure text on the page.  If I delete the background image with an illustration, the illustration is deleted too -- the background and illustration is one image.

I will have to do a little leg work to edit the background image that is tied to an illustration, and save it as a .png so the white space is not affected by the background color I choose.  This is a little time-consuming...unless someone else has a better solution?

BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA
BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA
Participant
September 18, 2023

Photoshop I hear is good for such things! Google it or ask AI like ChatGPT I assure you that you will find your way!

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices