Scanned text with grey background - barely see text - how to fix this

Question

I have a lot of scanned documents - jpg files - they were scanned and sent to me so I don't have the original to scan properly - the original must have been coloured paper I am guessing - it came to me very grey with the text barely visible. How do I fix this - I'm not an expert with Layers (don't really utilise that much at all) and I use Photoshop Elements 2021.  I've tried looking for videos to show me but they mostly focus on removing background from a large picture in the scene - not text.

Greg_S. · Accepted Answer

I forgot to mention that the files are in RGB color mode.  I suggest changing them to grayscale, using the Image>Mode>Grayscale option:

Greg_S. · Answer

Here is one way:Use the Levels tool (Ctrl+L) and play with the controls under the histogram.  You will need to move the sliders under the value bars in the histogram.  The one on the left controls the black point and the one on the right controls the white point.  These need to be pushed more to the center.  And you may also need to move the middle (gamma) slider.  Here is what I was able to achieve by moving the sliders very close together and to the left side of the histogram mountain. You could clean this up further, but I'm assuming this serves your purpose.  If not, let us know.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded