newbie can't get color changer to activate

[toejam]

Ok, I'm new to psp and wanting to use the color changer, but, it's grayed out and I can't select it. I'm working on a jpg image, don't know if that matters. I have used it in the past, but, not able to get to where I can select it.
SOS.

[toejam]

Forgot to mention, I've got psp x9 and psp 2018, same result in both programs.

[JoeB]

With that particular image open go to Image>Image information and make sure that the Color Depth is at least RGB - 8bits per channel. If it's not then Image>Increase Color Depth to RGB - 8 bits per channel. If it already is then I'm not sure why it would be greyed out.

[toejam]

That was it. I scanned in documents in grayscale because they're old docs and I'm trying to figure out how to get the text bolder so ocr programs can recognize the text. Increasing to rgb - 8 bit activated the color changer.

[JoeB]

If you're scanning text documents to open in PSP and want to make the text bolder after the scan before running OCR software, and if the documents are mostly white background with black text (or greyish text if not as dark as you need) then once they are in PSP go to Adjust>Brightness Contrast>Histogram Adjustment and move the right adjustment node/slider to the left to make the background whiter/brighter and the left slider to the right to make the text darker. Make sure that the Preview on Image option is checked and you'll be able to see the effect of the adjustments on the image as you move the sliders. It's a much easier and better way than trying to change the color of the text from grey to black with the color changer.

[toejam]

That was a LOT better than what I was attempting to do. Thank you for the hint!

[toejam]

Just a quick question, is there a way to convert to 2 color and set a threshold above turn colors white or black and below the opposite (black or white)? It seems that once I get to where I've got the text dark enough I should be able to convert to b&w and just end up with mostly text.

[JoeB]

Sorry but I don't know what you're actually looking for with your last question. If you're doing OCR with the documents once they are scanned and adjusted with Histogram, and if the adjustment makes the background white and the text black, then that's all you really need if your OCR software is good at its job. We would need a sample of the image you're working with and a better explanation of what the issue is that is causing my solution not to work for you to be able to be more definitive.

[toejam]

Sorry for the confusion. Let's say I have a 8 bit color image, 256 possible colors. If I want to convert to 2 color, b&w, is there a way to say all colors above 190 are black, all colors below 191 are white? This would give me a true b&w image. I've got lots of old docs that have gray areas when scanned. I went through the histogram routine - which was wonderful. But, it didn't get out all the gray areas. The OCR program picked up some of the gray areas as images, so, my ms word ocr output has a mix of text and images. I only want the text.
I've attempted to upload one of the pages. The 1915's at the bottom of the page get picked up as images, not text, with my OCR program.

[toejam]

Well, I thought I uploaded a file. Apparently it was too big (kb), then the dimensions were to big. Let's give it another try.

[MarkZ]

Sorry for the confusion. Let's say I have a 8 bit color image, 256 possible colors. If I want to convert to 2 color, b&w, is there a way to say all colors above 190 are black, all colors below 191 are white? This would give me a true b&w image. I've got lots of old docs that have gray areas when scanned. I went through the histogram routine - which was wonderful. But, it didn't get out all the gray areas. The OCR program picked up some of the gray areas as images, so, my ms word ocr output has a mix of text and images. I only want the text.
I've attempted to upload one of the pages. The 1915's at the bottom of the page get picked up as images, not text, with my OCR program.

Experiment with Adjust / Brightness and Contrast / Threshold or the threshold adjustment layer. Because of the smudges on the document you'll need to experiment and perhaps work in sections. Regardless, use layers as you may need to delete adjustments that don't work and this may save amount of rework.

[dwalby2]

Have you tried setting your scanner to B&W instead of greyscale? You may not have to do any PP at all in PSP, there's usually a threshold or brightness/contrast slider in the scanner setup menu.