How best to "untwist" an image? Wondering if paths can be used for that

[RauPP]

I was wondering if it was possible to transform images with paths, similar to the way puppet warp works. Reason being that I often got bent or warped lines in my images that I want to straighten. I'm not talking about horizon lines in photos and the like, but for example hand-drawn lines on scanned paper that were supposed to be straight.

If we take this jagged line as an example:

Would there be a way to "untwist" it using paths, flattening the spikes (no, not by cutting them off ^^)? I managed to do it with each of the following tools:

- Free Transform

- Warp

- Liquify

- Puppet Warp

This however was very time consuming and seemed needlessly difficult. Mainly because I had to chop the image up into single bits and treat them individually, or transforming one bit and then copying it over (which only works in images as uniform as this one). Using the path tool for this kind of task seems much more intuitive to me: You put an anchor point on each angle and then just draw every second anchor point down so that it lines up with the others. However, I haven't found a way to use paths in that way yet (or rather, only overly complicated ones). Can you think of one?

[Mylenium]

Long and short: No.

Mylenium

[cyberwasp]

I would try using the quick select tool to first select the pattern. Than convert the selection to a minimal path and shape it how you want it. a bit of work but possible.

[melissapiccone · Accepted solution]

You can convert it to a vector in Illustrator and do it, but not as a photo in PS.

[RauPP]

Interesting. Thank you for the comments, everybody!