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Re: Lead pencil writing on black paper



On Mon, 11 Jun 2001 13:16:06 -0500, Vonnie Shelton <vshelton@MCLIB.NET>
wrote:

>This is related to the white ink question.  A patron has a family Bible
with black pages.  She thinks it was written on with a lead pencil.  She can
see some handwriting but cannot distinguish what it says.  Does anyone know
of a technique or product that might enable her to read the handwriting?
She has tried a black light, but it did not help.
>
>Thank you,
>
>Vonnie Shelton
>Special Collections
>McCracken County Public Library
>555 Washington Street
>Paducah, Kentucky 42003
>Phone 270-442-2510 Ext. 24
>Fax 270-442-2510
>

Vonnie--this is something that works with many similar situations.  I scan
the image, in color even if it appears to be a basic black/white thing.
Then use the color spectrum toggle thing (or whatever that feature is
called!) until you find a color band that can highlight the distinction
between the two colors and then focus on enhancing the contrast.  You may
need to play around with this a bit, but I've always found digital graphics
enhancement can go a really long way with "bringing ou" faint images.  Btw,
sometimes it can take awhile so always keep the original scan and work just
with a copy of the scan, in case you need to "back up" and try a different
band of color.

I hope I've explained this adequately!

Holly Hodges

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