Howto improve image on photocopy?

[Gevaubr]

Hi,
I have a series of old photocopies with text and b/w-images. They should be reproduced as facsimile. As you could imagine photocopied images are a nightmare considering the quality. Does anyone have an idea how to improve the quality of the b/w-images? My first idea is:

1. scan the images with 600dpi
2. unsharpen the image
3. reduce them to 300dpi
4. sharpen the result.

This brings a little improvement. Any suggestions for a more convincing procedure?

Thanks, Georg
 

600dpi_Original.tif

[NotMyFault]

Hi Georg,

if you are searching for the name in the bottom of the image, you can find a high-res colored postcard in better quality of the same building. This might save some time

Cheers,

Timo

[Gevaubr]

Thanks Timo!
In this specific case it helps. But there are about 70 other images. Photopgraphy, postcards, drawings... so I'm still searching for a procedure...

Regards, Georg

[NotMyFault]

Hi Georg,

it seems there is no silver bullet. Similar to lossy compression, some information has been lost when images were rasterized / dithered from grayscale to pure black & white raster. You original seems to be distorted compared to the other image.

You workflow seems quite reasonable to me.

You may try different workflow, e.g.

• using frequency separation
• reduce resultion more drastically (4x or 8x) and then use other AI-supported upscale apps (not available in Affinity Photo) to re-gain some details.

Have luck and fun,

Timo