Acrobat- adjust brightness and contrast to a scanned PDF with multiple pages.

[rgbnites]

Is there any way to adjust the brightness and contrast of a multi-page scanned notebook? The scanner scanned the pages too dark, and I would like to make an adjustment for all pages at once.

[gary_sc]

Depending on the document and how it was scanned, probably not in Acrobat. 

The BEST time to make adjustments in the scanned document is at the time of the scan. If you place the document in the scanner and click the "Scan" button, the scanner has no idea what it's doing. Also, depending on the model of the scanner and what the default provides, you are at the mercy of whoever set any defaults. 

The safest way to get past this is to do the adjustments yourself at the time of the scan. Here is a blog I wrote for Adobe a number of years ago that covers most of the issues.

Best, and good luck!

https://community.adobe.com/t5/adobe-community-professionals/scanning-clean-searchable-pdfs/m-p/4785...

[rgbnites]

Thank you, Gary. Your answer is concise and "clean." I perused your well-done article, and it verified what I knew about adjusting light levels on Acrobat. I thought there might be a useful update. There's a lot to be desired with Acrobat, including type/text handling. The trouble is that I can't access the light controls anymore on my Epson scanner (V800) for previewing. Question: Is there a way to open photoshop for each page in an open Acrobat file?

[gary_sc]

Hi, @rgbnites, yes, I have the V800 scanner myself. It's a great machine. 

First, to answer your question (then editorializing): Yes, you can open a PDF into PS. Unfortunately, you can only open it up one page at a time. Once open, you can marquee an image on the page and do what you want to improve the image. After you are done, you can save it as a Photoshop PDF. The negative here is that the file sizes will be amazingly large. Fortunately, you can open this file in Acrobat and Compress this file. So, it's tedious, but it can be done. One major disadvantage here, though, is that the files will only be 8-bit, so the dynamic range of the files will be limited. If you want to open the highlights or dark regions, you will be limited. (See below on dynamic range.)

I only use the Epson software when I'm doing a scanning session to show its limitations; it's not my software of choice. Otherwise, I use Silverfast. It's not cheap, but if you do photography and also scan images, it's a "must upgrade. " Unfortunately, as you observed, the controls that used to be in Epson Scan have been dumbed down — people want the one-click wonders, which is not always possible with scanning. One of the big benefits of SilverFast is that it scans in 16-bit per color (48 total)  to capture a much greater range than all other scanning software. Once you are done with the scan, it can save the file in either 48- or 24-bit (8-bits per channel (RGB)). For black & white images, you can scan in 16-bit, which can be saved in 16-bit or 8-bit.

For less expensive scanning software, there is VueScan, which is less expensive than SilverFast. I've tried it, and while it's better than Epson Scan, I am not a fan. The biggest failing is that you can change the "Lightness" of the scan, but you cannot selectively set just the highlights or dark regions like you can in Levels. I have not looked at it in years, so I do not know if they have updated to include this.

My one complaint with Silverfast is that it is not the easiest software to learn. They make it much harder to use than warrants. In addition, their manuals leave much to be considered. For example, they love acronyms for their controls. An example is AACO, which stands for Auto Adaptive Contrast Optimization. If you look this up, it will tell you (and I'm paraphrasing here), 'It allows you to set contrast optimization.' [And again, I used single quotes because I am paraphrasing.] But, in reality, once you start to use it, you can see what to do and where to do it, so it is much easier than one might think on first opening.

Good luck with whatever approach you use.