Increased scan quality of black and white prints

Faced with a pile of black and white prints of poor quality but desperately scanned, especially those printed on old newspapers and periodicals, either the paper is yellowed or the paper is too thin and the ink permeability is too great, resulting in the front and back of the paper. Infiltrating each other, these seriously affect the quality of the scan. This article describes a method that can guarantee the quality of the scan.


1. The color mode is used during scanning to faithfully identify the original, increase the accuracy, and provide conditions for smooth removal of the backside graphics that penetrate the front side of the paper.

2. Using Photoshop software to convert the scanned image to a grayscale image can effectively solve the paper yellowing problem. The author found that this is better than scanning directly with a scanner in grayscale mode.

3. Remove the back image penetrating the front of the paper. The theoretical basis is that even if the graphic printed on the back of the paper penetrates into the front of the paper, it is still clearly different from the graphic printed on the front. In other words, the gray value of the front image is lower (ie, darker), and the gray value of the back image seen through the front is higher (ie, whiter). We use the Levels adjustment (using the Image\Adjust\Levels menu command) to filter out the higher gray levels and remove the annoying backside graphics. Note: Do not use the Auto Levels command to automatically adjust the level, otherwise the effect is poor.

4. Level adjustment method: just adjust the two ends of the Input Levels in the dialog box to get a very good effect.

â–² Use the mouse to move left to enter the leveling white slider (in the triangle on the right) or directly in the text box on the right to filter out the higher gray levels (here the back image). .

â–² Use the mouse to move the Input Levels Black slider (located on the left side of the triangle) to the right or directly in the left text box to add a black part of the lower grayscale value (in this case, the front image) deepen.