6 Replies Latest reply: Dec 16, 2010 3:18 PM by FontRider RSS

    Filter required to clean up scan of music

    jt77474 Community Member

      I scanned some music at 300dpi. 600dpi would have been nice but it's too late. I have attached a sample, note how the lines are jittery and do not look nice.

       

      Can anyone suggest the most appropriate filter to smooth things out a bit before printing please? The jittery horizontal lines look horrible. Any suggestions so it will print better? Thanks

      musuci.jpg

        • 1. Re: Filter required to clean up scan of music
          Bart Cross Community Member

          This issue it that you scanned it as a 2 bit bitmap, instead of a grayscale.There isn't any satisfactory answer to this, it will just look worse. You'll have to rescan to get a satisfactory result. You should always check your first scan before doing anymore scans.

          • 2. Re: Filter required to clean up scan of music
            Mike Gondek2 Community Member

            You could livetrace this in illustrator, and maybe clean the result up.

            Picture 2.png

             

             

            Or use the Sonata font to rebuild this.

            Picture 1.png

             

            If you scan something like this next time don't be afraid to go much higher. Before Adobe/vector software we used to scan B&W logos at 1270 to 2540 dpi.

            • 3. Re: Filter required to clean up scan of music
              Noel Carboni Community Member

              One thing you can do is to blur the image a little to smooth the pixels, then use Threshold:

               

              1.  Blur - Gaussian Blur.  At the size you posted (with the large pixels), try a radius of 3 pixels perhaps.

              2.  Image - Adjust - Threshold, use 128 or a setting to your liking.

               

              Often running a sequence like the above several times can smooth an otherwise jaggy result, though you may lose some details.  It's kind of like using a Xerox machine to make a copy of a copy.

               

              Threshold.jpg

               

              -Noel

              • 4. Re: Filter required to clean up scan of music
                Dennis 1111 Community Member

                Have you actually tried to print a sample yet?  Since you scanned at fairly high resolution, a same-size print should not look that bad, particularly if you are printing on an inkjet (the ink absorption in the paper will blend the jaggies a little).

                 

                You might also want to try down-sampling to half the resolution using bi-cubic smoother and then up-sampling back to the original resolution, again using bi-cubic smoother.  It won't be perfect but it will smooth the edge jaggies a little without causing too much blur.  Again, judge the final print-out rather the "actual pixel" results on screen.

                 

                As mentioned, scan in greyscale in the future.  Doing it in greyscale will probably even let you use a LOWER resolution if you need to.

                • 5. Re: Filter required to clean up scan of music
                  jt77474 Community Member

                  Thanks everyone. I print with a very old but very good laserjet, so it really shows up. I have made a mistake using 300dpi bitmap.

                   

                  Over the summer I scanned a lot of stuff at 600 dpi bitmap, and it prints great on my laserjet. I guess doubling the horizontal resolution really helps a lot, and I should stick to 600 dpi in future. I like bitmap because the file sizes are good.

                   

                  I only recently realised how bad laser printers are at reproducing greyscale, so it was nice to learn how to threshold monochome graphics so now they print beautifully. Unfortunately the same can't be said for my 300 dpi music.

                  • 6. Re: Filter required to clean up scan of music
                    FontRider

                    Of the suggestions proffered, Mike Gondek's is the most practical; especially if you need to reuse the image at different sizes (business card, letterhead, web site, etc.)

                     

                    Live trace is one way to begin cleaning up the graphic. Another approach is after the graphic is imported into AI, reduce the layer's opacity to 40% and then lock it. That will make it easier to use it as a template so you can recreate the graphic with AI's tools.