: Scan/fax with text & numbers in black & white - how to improve/cleanup/enhance using Photoshop/GIMP? I do not have a lot of experience with Photoshop or GIMP. I have a scanned or faxed document

@Fox8063795

Posted in: #AdobePhotoshop #Gimp #Grayscale #Pdf #Scanning

I do not have a lot of experience with Photoshop or GIMP. I have a scanned or faxed document of an invoice/receipt that I am trying to submit to get reimbursed. I was mailed a copy with text that is speckled/grainy. I scanned the document and submitted it, however they thought a certain dollar amount was .75 instead of .15. I was hoping there would be a quick easy way to improve the quality of the document, being that its just 40 cents difference, to resubmit. Is there a recommended way to easily improve the original from the scan?



I tried the Gaussian blur and sharpen although I did not seem to get any improvements in clarity. I looked at levels but it seems to be pretty contrasting already with either black or white with not much changing when adjusting the gray channel levels.

Edit: I received this document in the mail (snail mail) from the vendor, which looks like a fax from a third party, so I did not have any control over the fax settings. I thought about asking the vendor to provide or obtain a better copy, but was interested in finding a quick fix. I scanned the document I was provided at 600 dpi with my own scanner.

I am currently using Photoshop. Sharpen did not do much at all unless I did Gaussian blur first (maybe because it is already sharp to begin with because it is black and white?). If I do Gaussian blur first, and then do sharpen, I can get the text to be thicker and darker, but it is still splotchy, and does not have clearly defined contours.



Since it is black and white, it seems like I need to find a way to fill in or darken only the missing white parts within the character contour. I don't know if something like that exists, maybe something with the magic wand rather than a filter, where it selects based on the outline/geometry/shape, skipping gaps of certain threshold, rather than the color value or something like that.

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