Would Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo Be of Help Here?

[GDPR-354025]

I am scanning ancient photocopies made from ancient newspapers archived on microfilm. The photocopied articles are on a subject whose sensitivity and timeliness make it important for me to reproduce them with a clarity that will hold up to a Youtube upload.

For a reason I do not understand, a particular newspaper archived its articles in negatives--i.e., black background, white text. 

I scanned the heck out of these white-on-black articles but cannot get the print clear. I have not had similar problems with black-on-white scanned photocopies.

I bought Affinity Designer thinking it was Affinity Photo (for IOS). Do either of these programs have a kind of "day for night" feature that would allow me to turn the white-on-black scans into black-on-white?

Thanks in advance.

[Gabe]

Hi @Guest-354025,

Welcome to the forums. 

You can invert the colours using a Curves adjustments, and invert the master curve like this: 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

 

[GDPR-354025]

Hot dawg. Thank you very much.

[MEB]

Hi Guest-354025,
With the layer selected you can also go to menu Layer ▸ Invert.

[GDPR-354025]

So I can Export the Curve(d) Layer alone as a JPEG.  

If this isn't correct, can you tell me how I get rid of the "white-on-black" original layer? 

Thanks again.

[John Rostron]

On 9/18/2018 at 3:56 PM, MEB said:

Hi Guest-354025,
With the layer selected you can also go to menu Layer ▸ Invert.

True, but using the Curves Adjustment, as @GabrielM suggested gives you much more control. You can fine-tune the transition between black and white and increase the contrast.

John

[GDPR-354025]

Ah, now I get it. I do want to fine-tune this as much as possible. I have been away from Affinity for too long (almost a year!). I assume I'd be able to Export the Curve(d) Layer alone as a JPEG.

Sincere thanks.

[MEB]

John, 
The op asked if "Do either of these programs have a kind of "day for night" feature that would allow me to turn the white-on-black scans into black-on-white?" The invert feature does just that and i though it would worth a mention. The Curves adjustment does indeed give more control as does the Levels adjustment (a bit less than Curves but still).

Guest-354025,
You can export the end result as a JPG. Note however that the image will be flattened (that is, the adjustment layer and the image layer will be merged into a single layer) - the JPG format doesn't support layers.

[GDPR-354025]

Oh noo... Affinity Photo will not let me open PDFs!

[John Rostron]

For this sort of work, I would avoid JPEG. My workflow would be something like:

• Convert the image to Greyscale (8-bit);
• Apply a levels Adjustment to set the black point and white point to the extreme values;
• Apply a Curves Adjustment to invert the image and increase the contrast using a steep (backwards) S-curve. Note that you could also adjust the black and white points in Curves rather than Levels, though it is not so intuitive;
• Export the image as an 8-bit PNG.

John

 

[GDPR-354025]

Spassiba, MEB, but I have a greater problem. Affinity Photo will not let me open a PDF.

[GDPR-354025]

Thank you (John). But I can't open a PDF in Affinity Photo. I wonder if I could open one in Affinity Designer, which I ha, bought by accident. 

[John Rostron]

I would have thought that the output from a scanner would be a bitmap, even if it were a pdf. Have you tried loading into Designer and then exporting as an 8-bit PNG? If you had Photo then, from Designer, you can choose to Edit in Photo. 

John

[GDPR-354025]

I'll see what's going on. I'm derelict for staying away from Affinity software so long and having to ask the question in the first place.

[John Rostron]

If you wold like to post the problematical pdf file, I would be happy to have a play and give you my recommendations.

John

[MEB]

Hi Guest-354025,
What happens when you go to File ▸ Open and select the PDF file in Affinity Photo? It should display a PDF Options dialog where you can chose which pages to load, missing fonts replacements etc. Isn't it displaying for you?

[GDPR-354025]

I've scanned the file to JPEG format and am going to try to put your and MEB's help to good use. I will report back

[John Rostron]

I still think that you should Avoid JPEG. If possible, scan to PNG or TIFF.

John

 

[GDPR-354025]

On 9/18/2018 at 4:53 PM, MEB said:

Hi Guest-354025,
What happens when you go to File ▸ Open and select the PDF file in Affinity Photo? It should display a PDF Options dialog where you can chose which pages to load, missing fonts replacements etc. Isn't it displaying for you?

Here is a screenshot of what I get. THANK you for letting me know this menu option even exists. I have attained Affinity entropy and need resuscitation.

[Alfred]

On 9/18/2018 at 5:00 PM, Guest-354025 said:

I have attained Affinity entropy and need resuscitation.

Here you go:

[GDPR-354025]

Ah ha! I have disturbed the Alfred Collective and Resistance is Now Futile. 

Well, me and the other hobos in the derelict camp succeeded in saving the file to JPEG, but per John's suggestion I'll change that to PNG, and I will report back. 

Yooz guys are da bomb. 

 

[GDPR-354025]

On 9/18/2018 at 3:53 PM, GabrielM said:

You can invert the colours using a Curves adjustments, and invert the master curve like this: 

 

Okay. Converted scan to PNG but do not know how to make this "X" that Gabriel demonstrated. If someone wants to tell me how to do this, it would be doing an Affinity-challenged soul a good deed for the day. Thank'ee kindly.

EDIT: I used MEB's plain Invert option, and it worked, but the newspaper is so degraded, this option will not be the best, so I still need help. 

[John Rostron]

On 9/18/2018 at 5:26 PM, Guest-354025 said:

 If someone wants to tell me how to do this, it would be doing an Affinity-challenged soul a good deed for the day. Thank'ee kindly.

The red line represents the original. To invert, you click on the top right of this red line and drag it down to the bottom right. You then click on the bottom left of the red line and drag it up to the top left. 

It would still help if you could post a scanned image.  (Use the Insert other media link..) We could then show you how we would do it step by step.

John

[GDPR-354025]

8 hours ago, John Rostron said:

The red line represents the original. To invert, you click on the top right of this red line and drag it down to the bottom right. You then click on the bottom left of the red line and drag it up to the top left. 

It would still help if you could post a scanned image.  (Use the Insert other media link..) We could then show you how we would do it step by step.

John

Thank you so much. I have been working on one photo out of very many I have to salvage. I tried to use Refine Edges, and it helped, or seemed to, then kind of vanished. I'll post a screenshot of what work I did on the image, and then the flattened image. (I will be away from the computer for the rest of the day.)

Again, thank you very much. The best thing possible would be to have both the photographs AND the text accompanying the articles usable, but I'd settle for any improvement at all. Most importantly is that I'd know the process by which you--or anyone--helped me refine this sample. As it stands, even with my edits, the article text is totally useless. 

(Thanks to MEB and Gabriel, too.)

[John Rostron]

I like a challenge!

John