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Participating Frequently
May 9, 2019
Pregunta

How to restore faded ink on Antique Marriage Certificate?

  • May 9, 2019
  • 4 respuestas
  • 3939 visualizaciones

I have my Grandparents Marriage Certificate and the ink writing on it is faded and barely readable. What can do to darken the ink? I am a novice at Photoshop So keep your replies simple. Thank you

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    4 respuestas

    Grant H
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 10, 2019

    honestly the best result will be a manual one, brushing each letter pixel depth. You would need a good scan of the document to start too.

    Norman Sanders
    Legend
    May 9, 2019

    (Click on image to enlarge)

    To maintain the character of the type, consider using a specially created K of the CMYK set and using that as Layer in the RGB file, as follows.

    1. Duplicate the file. In the Duplicate:

    2. Choose Edit > Color Settings > CMYK > Custom (at the top)

    3. In the drop-down panel Black Generation change Medium to Maximum (note the effect in the ramp. )

    4. In Channels add an alpha channel of the black, then Select All of this channel and Edit > Copy

    Move to the RGB file and Paste this special K as a layer above the Background layer.

    1.  Use Curves to create a white surround and crisp dense black. (Paint away the leaves.)

    2. Change the Blending Mode to Multiply. (Not shown: If desired, add a second Multiply layer of low opacity to add density. Dona't overdo it. We don't want to plug the drop shadows.)

    Last: Return your CMYK Color Settings to their original settings.

    (Building the handwritten elements is a separate challenge.)

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 10, 2019

    I tried both calculations and curves layers.   Neither gave me  much to work with.  Maybe the green channel has a  slight edge over the blue channel.  I  settled on a combination of curves and B&W, and copy merged that to a new layer.  I used  the brush set to Overlay to  firm up the blacks, and reduce the background, and set  that layer to Multiply.  I then added a 'hide all'  mask, and painted the text back in.

    The result is a bit  clunky, but more readable

    I tried smoothing out the text by copy merging again, and adding a tiny blur (0.7)  and then firming back up with a levels layer

    Participating Frequently
    May 10, 2019

    Thank you Norman!

    Being that I am pretty much a novice on PS it's going to take me a while to translate your methods. I'm going to try everything. It looks like you are on the right track. I may want to go with a lighter black or a less opaque one to give the appearance of being old and faded.

    Thanks for your help and timely response!

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    Semaphoric
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 9, 2019

    For starters, try making a duplicate layer of it, and set the Blending Mode to Multiply.

        

    davescm
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 9, 2019

    Hi

    it depends on the colours and the amount of fade. Are you able to post a small cropped section that won't identify the people but that we can see the issue to advise you (i.e no names but maybe just the occupation or similar)

    Dave

    jefferys57143325
    Participant
    May 9, 2019

    Dave, I hope this came through for you,. It's a link to Google Drive. the file was to big to attach.

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NjWhWJuUbdMoE7K-pXwNjmCY_hx162dc

    davescm
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 9, 2019

    Hi Jeffrey

    The link did not work for me. Can you copy just a small section and paste it directly into a post here. We don't need to see teh whole thing - in fact it would be better not post an entire certificate on this public forum. Just a small part so we can see the colour difference that you are trying to recover.

    Dave