Scholarship on the Web: Matting Engravings & Line Art

The “replace color” technique employed in Adobe Elements can also be used in Photoshop, but there is an easier way. Like most software applications, Adobe Photoshop supports a number of different ways of approaching a problem and an equal number of techniques. This tutorial uses the “menu” approach as opposed to the “keyboard command” strategy for sake of simplicity. If you are comfortable using keyboard commands, substitute accordingly.

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1Our first task is to crop the image and correct the color. But before tackling the image, be sure that the Layer (Choose Window > Layers) and History (Choose Window > History) palettes open and accessible and that your tools are handy. At this juncture, it’s also advisable to tend to housekeeping and create a folder for your images and a file-naming regimen. For those using the tutorial image, select an area on the image that includes the woman and text but excludes the black border. The key to cropping is to crop closely, focusing on the center of interest in the image.

  1. Choose Open > File.
  2. Select the Crop Tool.
  3. Click and drag to select an area.
  4. Press RETURN or ENTER.
  5. Select Image > Adjust > Auto Color Correction.
  6. Select Image > Adjust > Auto Contrast.
  7. Select Image > Adjust > Auto Levels.

2Step 2 in PhotoshopOK. Now we’ll put in the new background and set up the image for editing. For our purposes of this exercise, the new background will be white.

  1. Double-click the name of the “Background” layer.
  2. Type “main” in the dialogue box.
  3. Click OK.
  4. Choose Layer > New > Layer.
  5. Type “bkgd” in the dialogue box.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Choose Layer > New > Layer.
  8. Type “transparency” in the dialogue box.
  9. Click OK.

3Step 3 in PhotoshopThe order of the layers is important in this technique. At this point you can use your own background color or texture.

  1. Arrange the layers by clicking and dragging the layers until they are in the order shown on the left.
  2. Select the “bkgd” layer by clicking it.
  3. Be sure that the foreground color is white.
  4. Choose Edit > Fill.

4Step 4 in PhotoshopBe sure that you select the “main” layer. Selecting any of the other layers will produce no results and puzzlement.

  1. Select the “main” layer by clicking it.
  2. Choose Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options.
  3. In the Blend If box, drag the This Layer slider to the left until as much of the background as possible disappears.
  4. Use the Eraser or Paint Brush tools to touch up any remaining defects in the image.

5Step 5 in PhotoshopTime to resize the image. Note the dimensions and resolution of your image. If you are using the “Home Guard,” you’ll not that it has been scanned at a very high resolution—far too high for a web image.

  1. Choose Image > Resize Image.
  2. Type 72 in the Resolution area of the dialogue box.
  3. Select Percent from the pull down menu.
  4. Type 50 in the Height or Width.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Choose Layer > Flatten Image.
  7. Click OK.

6Step 6 in PhotoshopSince the image has lost some data in the down sampling process, it has become a bit blurry. We’ll restore some of the detail by using the Unsharp Mask filter.

  1. Choose Filter > Unsharp Mask.
  2. Set the sliders to the following settings:
  3. Amount=50%
  4. Radius=1
  5. Threshold=0

You may need to use different settings to sharpen your image sufficiently. One of the best ways is to exaggerate the settings by moving the Amount slider to the far right and then by moving the slider to the left in increments until you get the result that you wish.

7Step 7 in PhotoshopThe last step involves preparing the image for the Web. Note that it is still possible to reduce the quality setting of the image markedly and still achieve excellent results—and a small image.

  1. Choose File > Save for Web.
  2. Select GIF or JPEG from the drop down menu.
  3. Adjust colors and quality.
  4. JPEG
  5. Low
  6. Optimized
  7. Quality=20
  8. Click OK.

The image can be either a JPEG or a GIF, although engravings turn out best as JPEG, given the fine lines that comprise an engraving. Creating a GIF requires making the white portions of the image transparent. Selecting and deleting the white portions of the image invariably destroys some of the fine lines and detail. For this reason, it is advisable to matte an image to a background color or texture before importing it into an HTML editor.

There are some images that that are so damaged that they will resist this approach. It’s important to gauge whether or not an image is worth the extra time and effort. Severely mutilated images can be resurrected, but the work is painstaking and detailed, involving the selection tool, multiple blends or color replacements, and pixel-based editing. From time to time, historians also want to put facsimiles of text sources on the Web. These are among the most difficult images to work with, and a good result ultimately depends on the condition of the original and the quality of the scan. Just so you know what you might be getting into.