ColinSmi Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 I am a very amateur bookbinder and I am putting together a book of spells. I have the copies of all the printed pages, however, the copy of the book is so old that the paper has browned. I now wish to print the pages out, but on pre-made brown paper to save wasting so much ink on every page being printed brown. I will get the same effect of a browned old book, but my own way. My question is, how can I make the background of each page white, but make the actual writing brown? I have tried many ways, but I just cannot get it right. I have attached a couple of images of pages as examples of what I have. Any help would be most appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Rostron Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Or like this? I first used levels and then curves to increase the contrast between the dark brown and light brown. I then merged visible. I placed a white fill layer below the top pixel layer and used the Flood Select Tool to select and delete the light brownish areas leaving them transparent. Keeping the main image with transparent for the background allows you to print on brown paper. PS: It would help if you changed your post title to something more meaningful. John Quote 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad_Wolf Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Just out of the top of my head. Can't you make the background white and then use the "opacity" to reduce the white? The text you can use brown for. By changing the opacity, you are also reducing the needed ink. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 You're not going to remove everything and really that would detract from the authenticity but applying a black and white filter can get you some way there. Moving the yellow slider will brighten the image but it will also lose you detail. After the above you could do a Merge visible and apply the Erase White paper filter to get this... Bear in mind that the Erase White Paper filter (EWP) is a destructive filter, so once applied the only way back is undo, if you save the document and then close it after applying the EWP filter you cannot undo it. If you want a browny tinge you could nest the original image under the pixel layer... Roger C 1 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdenby Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Here's my try: Duplicated the background twice. Hid the background. On one, selected tonal range/shadows and feathered 2 px. Inverted then used B&W adjustment layer. Repeated w 2nd dupe, but selected mid-tones. Merged those 2, and used the filter, Colors/erase white paper. Unchecked Document/transparent background. Couldn't find a way to make the "white" any whiter w/o loosing brown. Roger C 1 Quote iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb, AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil Huion WH1409 tablet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger C Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 A book of spells? The Magic wand tool could come in useful, perhaps? Sara72, Alfred and markw 1 2 Quote Affinity Designer & Photo : Win 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara72 Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Lols, Well wonder if the spell worked? Library seeks Witches to translate 17th century spellbook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 4 minutes ago, summersara said: Lols, Well wonder if the spell worked? Library seeks Witches to translate 17th century spellbook I don’t think they had spell checkers in the 17th century. markw, Roger C and Sara72 1 2 Quote Alfred 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinSmi Posted July 29, 2019 Author Share Posted July 29, 2019 Many thanks for the input into my problem. I shall just have to use 'Levels' and give plenty of white for the background and a little black and hope that when I print it onto browned paper that it looks OK> Regards Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Rostron Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 You will still need to delete the image background colour for the brown paper to show through. I took your image and applied Levels and Curves, and then removed as much background colour as I could using Flood Select and Delete. The first image here is that version. (You may do better in erasing the background using the techniques by some of the clever clogs above @gdenbyand @firstdefence.) I then added a fill layer below with a pale blue to show what printing on pale blue paper would look like. If you generate a fill layer with a pale brown that emulates your brown paper, then you will get an idea as to how it would look when printed. Ideally you could find a pale brown paper/fill colour that matched the residual pale brown in your image. You would obviously turn off the brown fill layer before you printed. The first image below has a transparent background, the second has a pale blue background. John Quote 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 I all likelihood the inks would have been much darker and would probably have looked a black. The process of making the ink is probably what gives it a brownish tinge as it fades: http://web.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/ink.html Alfred, walt.farrell and John Rostron 3 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorP Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 first defence, I bought Designer and Affinity Photo mostly to do this exact thing, and I've spent on and off three years of frustration failing to do something you make seem simplicity itself. I can do the first part, applying the B&W filter, but after looking in the online help , the forum and the manual I can't find any info or tutorial on how to "merge visible" or "Erase White Paper". If you or someone else could spare a couple of minutes to explain in words of one syllable, I'd be grateful. My level of incompetence with Designer is pretty much total - eg although I can follow the online guide to set up the parameters for the dodge/burn brushes, I've never managed to make a marks with them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted March 19, 2020 Staff Share Posted March 19, 2020 Hi TrevorP, Welcome to Affinity Forums The Merge Visible command and Erase White Paper filter are only available in Affinity Photo (which is our photo editing app). Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorP Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Thanks MEB. I have Photo as well, same level of competence, just looking to see if I can find the commands now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray S. Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Hi Trevor, you'll find the "Merge Visible" under the Layers-menu, the "Erase White Paper" under Filters/Colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 You can get something fairly decent by only using some Adjustments (available in all the Affinity applications). Watch the attached video and look at the settings I’ve used. Once you have the adjustments added you can tweak them as per requirements. It will probably be difficult to get something perfect without some manual work – and the best workflow would very much depend on the specific image – but if you want something quick then this should be fine. At the very least, it’s something to play around with and see what happens. 2020-03-19 13-41-26.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorP Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 44 minutes ago, Ray S. said: Hi Trevor, you'll find the "Merge Visible" under the Layers-menu, the "Erase White Paper" under Filters/Colors. Found those, and made them work. Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzler Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 I've just had another thought, which may be a much quicker method. Simply click on the cog in the layers panel (Blend Ranges) and in the Source Layer Ranges box drag the right hand node right down to the bottom. That seems to do a fairly decent job by itself. You might also find that moving the left node across to the middle of the top gives a stronger contrast and leaves more ink showing. You can also turn off the linear tickbox and drag another point between the other two to get a curve that will give you a lot more control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorP Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Thanks Lagarto; but no, that isn't my issue (the drawings in the thread aren't mine, it was just that @firstdefence posted in reply to the original poster something that was relevant to my problem). I repair books. Sometimes I need to replace a torn piece of text from a photo/photocopy/scan of a replacement page, then print it on a piece of paper similar to that of the original. So I need an image of the text with the "white paper" erased. Making small adjustments to the images of the text when the new page isn't identical to the old - slightly different print size, say - is the next problem I need to solve. But all this is probably more information than you need or want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorP Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 1 hour ago, GarryP said: You can get something fairly decent by only using some Adjustments (available in all the Affinity applications). Watch the attached video and look at the settings I’ve used. Once you have the adjustments added you can tweak them as per requirements. It will probably be difficult to get something perfect without some manual work – and the best workflow would very much depend on the specific image – but if you want something quick then this should be fine. At the very least, it’s something to play around with and see what happens. 2020-03-19 13-41-26.mp4 Thanks Garry. That's very useful. I looked for ages for a demo clip like this. If you don't have much familiarity with Affinity or other graphic design programs (like me) you need demos of the simplest, most obvious things. The Affinity tutorials make me feel like an eight year old in a university seminar. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 You're welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevorP Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 On 3/19/2020 at 2:44 PM, Dazzler said: I've just had another thought, which may be a much quicker method. Simply click on the cog in the layers panel (Blend Ranges) and in the Source Layer Ranges box drag the right hand node right down to the bottom. That seems to do a fairly decent job by itself. You might also find that moving the left node across to the middle of the top gives a stronger contrast and leaves more ink showing. You can also turn off the linear tickbox and drag another point between the other two to get a curve that will give you a lot more control. Thanks, Dazzler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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