Adjusting old map

[Margek_corel]

I have a jpg file of a very old Parish Map downloaded from web. It is unfortunately very low resolution with light cream background and faded printed information. Also the centre of the relevant area has been coloured deep red. Which tool should I use to enhance the printing? I have been experimenting with Lighten/Darken and also the Dodge brush but obviously not using them correctly. One pass gives me some improvement but further passes turn everything white. There is very little difference in colour between the background and the printed matter which I think was originally black. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Marge

[LeviFiction]

Lighten Darken tends to be a very quick extreme change and it continues to increase as you draw over the same area. To use these tools use a small opacity to make tiny gradual changes as you brush over the areas.

Other options might be to use adjustment layers like Curves or Levels to make changes over the whole image then use a black brush with a low opacity to weaken the effect over some areas.

[hartpaul]

I tried to see if Splitting an image into channels and then trying to select and adjust sections helped, but without much success.
Best result I managed was to use magic wand on RGB with a low tolerance and select the red areas (I had a map with streets marked in red) , then desaturate and then use brightness and contrast set to high to turn those areas white again.

[Margek_corel]

Thanks for replies. Sounds very complicated for a new user like me. I will try all the same.
Can I send and attach the jpg file which I am struggling with? I think if you see it you might be able to help me more.
Marge

[wds937]

Can I send and attach the jpg file which I am struggling with? I think if you see it you might be able to help me more.

I think it would be helpful if you attach the image on which you are working. In the mean time, just to play with a few settings, I downloaded an old map I found by searching Google.

Sounds very complicated for a new user like me. I will try all the same.

A couple of quick things you can try that may be a little less complicated:

• Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Local Tone Mapping...; use 10.0 for Strength
• Adjust > Color > Fade Correction...; use 60 for Amount of correction

Try the above two things in either order. For some images, the result appears better by doing the fade correction first, and for others by doing the local tone mapping first. Also, experiment with the values suggested above.

While these results may not be perfect, they should get you started.

[Margek_corel]

Thank you for reply. I am trying to attach the jpg image of the map. It is very poor resolution as I can only download it from a government web site here in Australia.

http://parishmaps.lands.nsw.gov.au/mrsi ... maptype=PH

Is this how I should send it, not from my computer?
Marge

[teknisyan]

Here are 3 tutorials that can help you in restoring that old photos.

Restoring Faded Photos - http://www.corel.com/corel/pages/index. ... id=1500586
Restoring a Damaged Photo - http://www.corel.com/corel/pages/index. ... id=1500580
Restoring a Stained Photo - http://www.corel.com/corel/pages/index. ... id=1500576

Though these tutorial were created using old version of PSP, but you can still apply the steps to newer versions.

[hartpaul]

Hi Margek_corel,
That link does not seem to be working. (BTW when you hit the URL button you need to paste the link inbetween the two bracketed items that appear.

Is that link one where you had to pay a fee to have access to the map? If so we probably cannot use the same link.

Your only other option would be to put a copy of the map somewhere where others can access and see. eg make an account on photobucket and place it there and then others can see and download it from there. Or upload it to a public folder on facebook or flickr and again provide the link.

[LeviFiction]

Hey hartpaul, that link worked for me at home but doesn't seem to work here at work. Which is interesting. Maybe it just expired.

But it leads to a site that uses a very specialized image format called Mrsid. This image is made visible inside of a very small box hence the "low-quality" version of the image they were talking about. The original image size is like 5444x4650 or something like that in size. And if you zoom out to the full the best you can do is an 800x600 using the Java Applet. Or 640x480 on the HTML version.

For a higher quality image they could use the Java Applet, set the size to 800x600 and zoom in to 100% taking snap shots of little 800x600 squares to get the image and stitch it all back together. But that gets tedious.

If the site provides a means for downloading the entire image you could use IfranView to open and convert it to keep the higher quality but from the looks of it I highly doubt it does.

Otherwise Marge you'll have to upload the image either to the forums or an image hosting site like hartpaul suggested.

[Margek_corel]

Thanks hartpaul
I will try again to send this link. I don't have a facebook account etc. so I will try again from here. There is no fee or registration needed to access this site.

http://parishmaps.lands.nsw.gov.au/mrsi ... maptype=PH

Also thanks to LeviFiction
If all else fails I will have to try your suggestions but have no confidence in my ability to attempt these procedures

This is the worst of the maps I have downloaded from the Dept of Lands Parish Map Preservation Project site but these maps contain invaluable information in understanding the history of the Snowy Mountains Monaro district and the original settlers and land holdings etc.

Wish me luck
Marge

[Margek_corel]

Sorry, it has taken quite a while for me to experiment with your suggestions. Your encouragement helped me to investigate and I have had quite a lot of success in clarifying my old map to a stage where I can read most of the printing etc and print a readable version.
My introduction to using Levels worked well after a good deal of experimenting with something totally new to me. Tried Curves and Channel splitting but Levels did the job best for me.
I also learned to appreciate some of the depth of Paint Shop Pro.
Many thanks for your help in showing me not to be afraid of experimenting.
Marge.