Hi Ed, Ed wrote: > Hello all, > My knowledge of Gimp and image editing borderlines /dev/null so bare with me > please! > > Is there a way to make the background transparent so that only the hand > written text remain after I have scanned a document... or do I need a tablet? > > The document is scanned via xsane so I can have it in multiple formats, TIFF, > JPEG, ... > > Any help would be apreciated, thanks :) > you could achieve this by selecting the entire scan, copying it into the clip- board, and then using this copy as a layer mask. I am presuming that the text as such is grayscale; otherwise you could first duplicate the layer (the scan is most likely on the background layer) & then convert it to a grayscale via 'Layer > Colors > Desaturate'.
The following steps would be (there are actually several ways to achieve this, but I'm trying to make it as simple as possible): 1. 'Duplicate layer' (the layer with the scan; the text should be in grayscale by now; otherwise see above). 2. Invert the colors of the duplicated layer via 'Layer > Colors > Invert'. (This is, btw, an easy way to invert colors in general.) 3. Copy the inverted channel into the clipboard via 'CTRL + A', 'CTRL + C'. 4. Go to the layer with the scan, and apply 'Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask...'. 5. Copy the contents of the clipboard into the mask by simply applying 'CTRL + V', 'CTRL + H'. 6. The last step would be 'Layer > Colors Apply Layer Mask...'. This will remove the background from the scan, leaving only the text. In case that the remaining text is somewhat 'edgy', applying 'Filters > Blur > Blur' after step 1. can probably help. HTH, Claus -- Home Page: http://home.arcor.de/ccyrny/ (Photographs) Blog: http://grafomatic.twoday.net (in German) "Djangology" http://home.arcor.de/ccyrny/djangology/ (my Django Reinhardt site; in German) _______________________________________________ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
