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Photo fixing?

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
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Does anyone use software to "improve" an out-of-focus photo?

The image below shows what I'm working with. An old car's 1951 delivery certificate, probably a photo made from a microfiche image. I received it as a pdf, and converted it to a jpg to display here. Looks like a worn out typewriter ribbon was making very fuzzy print.

test.jpg


Is there any software out there which will "focus" (sharpen, etc.) the text? The software I've tried (GIMP) allows sharpening, but doesn't do what I need.

All you PhotoShop gurus, does PS do that kind of thing?

Thanks.
Tom
 
My husband is good at that kind of thing. Can you send him the original PDF? message me and i'll give you my email address
 
Thanks Rosalind. PM sent.

Anyone else have experience with sharpening focus on photos? I'm trying to find software which will do that.

Thanks.
Tom
 
NutmegCT said:
Thanks Rosalind. PM sent.

Anyone else have experience with sharpening focus on photos? I'm trying to find software which will do that.

Thanks.
Tom
Click to expand...

Not easy to do, Tom. There are several plug-ins for Photoshop that claim to do what you want, but in my experience, they leave a lot to be desired. Software can't add something that's not in the original. If you had the original document and a very good scanner, perhaps it could be sharpened a little better. I tried your photograph with PS plug-ins and filters that I have without much success. A tad more contrast and a little sharper, but still most of the typewritten material was illegible. And the fact that it was in German didn't help. If it was in English, guesses could be made. I would be interested to see if Roselind's husband could bring it out better than I could.
 
Thanks gents. As an experiment, I just tried "FocusMagic". Still not great, but better than other tools I've tried over the last couple months.

Compare this one below with the original in the first post:

test2.jpg
 
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