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e-nater
Participating Frequently
August 15, 2013
Question

Help restoring faded handwritten document...

  • August 15, 2013
  • 2 replies
  • 33486 views

Hi! I have been doing some ancestry research and came across a document I was looking for for a long time. However, the document is faded and I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what it says. Here are links to the 2 pages of the document:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-12403-18934-41?cc=1807092&wc=5840150

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-12403-18935-40?cc=1807092&wc=5840150

I'm by far not a photoshop expert, but I can follow instructions quite easily or if anyone can help me out with this, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

      2 replies

      F
      Farida5E36
      Participant
      July 14, 2021

      I have similar problem, need help of someone to make my document readable.

       

      Chuck Uebele
      Community Expert
      Chuck UebeleCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 15, 2013

      If these are at the full resolution that you have, the noise/grain will create issues along with the lack of resolution.  You can try using an adjustment layer such as levels to increase the contrast to make the text more legible.  Open the file in PS and select from the main menu: Layer>New Adjustment layer...>Levels.  When the levels dialog box opens you can adjust the sliders below the histogram (the end point ones) so that you can hopefully read the text better.  Maybe someone else has some better suggestions.

        Trevor.Dennis
        Community Expert
        Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        August 15, 2013

        Is that your only access to the document?   If so, they sure don't make it easy.    If not, what format and size do you have the image at? And could you upload _that_ image to this forum as opposed to the above viewer.

        station_two
        station_two
        Inspiring
        August 16, 2013

        It's very frustrating to find such a valuable document and not be able to figure out what it says (mostly, at least). I plan on giving the church that should have the original a call so I can check if I can get a scan or even a high resolution photo of it. There's also the possibility of rescanning the original microfilm if I can get ahold of it at one of the research centers. But then again, it's just goes down into getting a better, higher resolution scan of the document.


        If all you want is to read it (as opposed to framing it) it's eminently fixable.  I deal with worse images of ancestral records all the time.

        I applied one of my routines to your first image, and this is a downsized version of what I came up with. 

        It's totally legible to a native Spanish speaker familiar with the writing stiles of the era.

        If you're happy with the result I can put a full resolution, layered TIFF or PSD on Dropbox.

        It's just a question of straightening the image, trimming it, running a Median filter on it, setting the black and white levels, and then duplicating the background layer two or three times in various blending modes like Multiply or Linear Light, etc. whatever works best.

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