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Obtaining a clear copy of a postmark


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I have to collect clear black and white images of thousands of postmarks, black on a white (or transparent) background, taken from cancelled stamps. I have tried to do this on PhotoPlus 8 but have failed.  The interface here is far more complex and I have no idea where to start. A sample of what I have to work with is attached. The resulting images should only be the black postmark with no image of the stamp at all.

Please remember I have no experience with Affinity Photo at all.

Thanks,

Mark

200h-I-100.jpg

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One way:

Use the Flood Select tool. Untick the Contiguous box. Click on the white part, then delete, Click on the blue parts, then delete. You may have to go in close to see any bits left over, click on them until you only have the black part left. You may need to try adjusting the Tolerance setting to get the cleanest removal of unwanted areas. To get rid of the black borders you can use the Erase brush.

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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22 minutes ago, Hradcany said:

I have tried to do this on PhotoPlus [X8] but have failed.

I saw your thread about this on CommunityPlus and have just suggested there that you look into layer blend modes, but Affinity Photo has more options in this area. Maybe someone with the appropriate level of expertise will be able to provide step-by-step instructions.

 

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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By the way, this is a destructive process, so work on copies, not on the original files! - Best of luck.

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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Hi Alfred,

I regret to say I have no idea what a layer blend mode is or how to produce one. My skill and information levels are rather low. What I have used PP X8 for is producing a composite image by applying layers of flaws found on different stamps to a single master as an index of variations. That is about it. Can you be a bit more specific?

You can see what I do know here, on page 16: https://czechout.org/test2/dove-10.html

Mark

 

Edited by Hradcany
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I have another recipe:

Step 1: add a Black&White-Adjustment-Layer and tweak the blue/cyan-sliders to change the blue tones to light grey.

step_1.jpg.329f2f0bde7fcd2105db4b95dd4b8d14.jpg

Step 2:

Add a Levels-Adjustment-Layer. Switch to LAB-Mode and adjust the white and black-Level to get rid of the grey-tones.

step_2.jpg.f2e4045fc5b0e1aef4bf64db6ad3ce6e.jpg

Step 3:

With Layer/Merge Visible (or cmd+alt+shift+E) make a cumulative layer. You need this to apply Filter/Colors/Erase white paper.

step_3.jpg.6db3d8abf0799484439b10e65fca3860.jpg

Step 4: Crop to taste and export as PNG to keep the transparent background.

step_4.png.42dffc9c19ba491e8a610c75aebe89c0.png

I hope this is not too advanced, but give it a try.

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I think Ray S. probably has the best solution, but here is a way using Blend Ranges, in case you want to try it. I'm assuming all the stamps are the same, or at least single colours, if not it may be a bit trickier.

 

 

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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Looking at the stamps and postmark, I would suggest a Threshold adjustment as a first pass. Levels > Adjustments > Threshold (right at the  bottom). Choose a  threshold on the slider that will render the postmarks black and the rest white.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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