I need helo with a 50+ year old faded label PLEASE!!

[monica_0669]

HI EVERYONE,
Full Disclosure; I posted this [by private message to davescm] in ADOBE and Dave in that community asked me to post to the 'EXPERTS' OVER HERE WITH A PIC! PLEASE HELP!

I read your post on the faded marriage certificate and hope you can help.

I have an 19th C. Asian scroll that is a family Heirloom and I have had it in a box for over 40 yrs and my mother-in-law had it in the same box for over 50 yrs. before she legally immigrated from Taiwan when it was still ROC and they were being oppressed by the China Dynasty at the time.  So, she brought her son, that many years later became my husband, and came to America. 

The scroll has been in the box almost this entire time and before. I never really asked too many personal questions, since she was hard to understand...but she gave it to me on my 1st birthday after marrying Jim.  It's had the label I guess as soon as they were invented, and the box too....I don't know. I had on the wall for a short time, but I started having 2 small girls and I it was so ancient and beautiful I took it down...I could just see one of them ripping it down falling or something. So, it's been back in the box for 40 years in the closet thru a few moves and a divorce. 

She changed her name to Judy Brown when she immigrated as they were encouraged to do, so they couldn't come after them and she died about 20 years ago in May. I gave the scroll to my youngest daughter Jenny (since that was her grandma, and Jim was her dad) for Christmas in 2023, and we both got had a good cry over it because she remembered it. That's when I discovered that the label on the end of the box and the one on the side of the box were no longer legible.

Unfortunately, my daughter was recently killed by her roommate, and my story and hers has changed forever. The scroll says something on it...but I am quite sure the labels would reveal more. Because to be honest, I'm not sure I can keep it. I need to find out the history and why everyone that's handled it that was part Taiwanese has died a tragic death and what the poem says and where it came from. 

Judy's sister came laster and lives somewhere in America said something about Royalty having painted it....if they did, they can have it back!

Will you help or do you just know how to help me read the labels or different things I can try? I can't risk ruining them, someone suggested heat or laminating....but your thing says EXPERT!

I don't know if that's just Adobe software or all of adobe including labels and printing?

thanks,

Monica Brown

[email removed by moderator]

[Response in PM from davescm ‎Mar 20, 2025]

Please raise your issue in the Photoshop forum and include the best scan or photograph you can take of of a small section of  the scroll or label that is difficult to read. That gives us something to work with. Don't do anything that would risk damaging the scroll itself.

The 'Expert' designation in the forums is awarded by Adobe, in recognition of expertise in their software. Experts are mostly working, or retired, industry professionals who volunteer their time in the forums. My own expertise is in Photoshop and 3D software. By posting in the community forums, you reach a range of experts with different industry backgrounds who can advise you.

Dave

[Further PM to davescm by monica_0669)

So, I might get you again, but I can't ask you in here?
If you only knew what it took for me to find you again! Well, all you have to do is look at the dates. This is how long it took. lol

I found you by accident the first time, but finding it again the second time....I didn't remember how I got here. 

I'll do as you asked. 

thanks,

Monica

[Glenn 8675309]

There are images on the box label, I can't find any writing. 


This screenshot is on the right side about in the middle.

[monica_0669]

Yes, but when she first gave it to me, it was about the color of this page. Kinda beige...barely off ivory, and after almost 40 years in a box, Texas storage heat while I was in Glacier Park working 1 summer then right off to Hawaii working for the next 1.5 yrs on a cruise ship, then moved a couple more x til it got settled again in the closet it's been in for 10 yrs.. So, it definitely had typeset on it and it was very ledgible if you spoke Chinese or Taiwanese. Neither of which I do. So I always wwondered what it said. 
But never in a million did I think it would disappear!!!  😞

Then I saw Dave's answer to something to something about the marriage certificate, so that was why I sent the msg to you Dave, because you helped that one guy. I don't know the protocal with these rooms...I thought they became obsolete once Facebook forums and Youtube and the like tookover....you know, INSTANT GRATIFICATION AND ALL! LOL. Who has time to wait on a secret answer from. 3 different ppl that might not ever some. 🙂

Anyway, I truly am grateful for all yourness and feedback each and every one of you. I will try the library, and the UV and the Blacklight I heard somewhere, and I haven't read the 3rd one yet. 

I truly am grateful! I'll still check back occasionally, but if someone comes up w an idea or you see a bright idea b4 you see me...please feel free to email me. mbscuba10@yahoo.com

Monica Brown,

mbscuba10@yahoo.com

[monica_0669]

[Semaphoric]

You might try reaching out to your local public library. They may direct you to a local document recovery service, or maybe something that can be done at the library itself.

One possibility is to photograph it under ultraviolet light.

[davescm]

Hi,

Just to be clear, you did not post 'in Adobe' but you posted a private message to me. I asked you to post in this forum, with an image, so that several participants could look at your image and try and help you with alternative techniques.

Having looked at the image you posted, I cannot see any writing or symbols in the image that you posted. Looking at individual channels and boosting contrast did not reveal anything at all. As @Semaphoric suggests it may be worth examining under different lighting, such as UV to see if anything is revealed that way. Photoshop can sometimes help enhance and reveal detail that is barely visible but cannot bring out detail that is invisible and therefore not captured by the camera.

Dave