scanned historical documents

_hybrid_

quick question for any graphic design gurus

I am getting some image files scanned from historical documents (c1800). the documents will have handwritten text on them and will be faded/damaged etc.

I have no graphic design background but I have a working knowledge of photoshop and illustrator. has anyone got any tips for me on how to bring up the text a bit more?would it be worth trying to replace the background or something?

my monitor is really poor as well so I was wondering what a good entry level graphic design monitor would be(so that i can be confident that what i do will transfer properly to be printed in a book)?

thanks in advance

flanree

A lot of success in cleaning up scans in photoshop comes from experimentation. I would recommend making subtle adjustments with the following commands and see what works well.
Image > Adjustments > Levels: adjust the input level sliders gradually until you see how they affect the image.
Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask: a good starting point here is Amount 100, Radius 1.0 & Threshold 0. Play with the amount level and watch the effect.(this filter is best applied last having made all other adjustments previously).

With regard to changing the background, that really means making a selection around the foreground objects (text?) which in an old handwritten scan is very tricky to do cleanly. I would clean the image as a whole. If colour is not important and it's more or less black text on white I would change the colour mode to grayscale (Image > Mode > Grayscale). This simplifies the range of pixels you are adjusting so you will see quicker/easier results. Any unwanted marks or dots are best removed with the clone tool at a small brush size.

I don't know enough about current available monitors on the market to advise there. I've had great CRT's and flat screen ones but generally the dearer the better

_hybrid_

thanks a lot, will give it a go.