I don't have any software solution that works for everything but have been able to improve some bad images using my Olympus Camera software. These were digital photos taken from the microfilm viewer. For viewing film or fiche on the machine (overhead hood type machine) it sometimes helps to put yellow or goldenrod paper stock in the viewer for the image to project on. For some reason this makes it easier for the eye to pick out contrasts. -----Original Message----- From: alsace-lorraine-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:alsace-lorraine-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Mary Lavins Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 11:26 AM To: alsace-lorraine@rootsweb.com Subject: [A-L] how to best photo-enhance old handwriting in a microfiche JPG? Most of my old microfiches from LDS are difficult to read not just because the script is old-fashioned, but also because the microfiche rendering is not very clear. I'm curious if anyone has found any software tool that improves the contrast of old script to allow it to "pop out" of an old scratched or blurred (fountain pen) document. When I try to "sharpen" , or "improve contast" with Adobe Photoshop, the scratches and bumps in the paper also become sharpened. And the blurring doesn't necessarily disappear. There are wand tools which I haven't figured out yet.... they seem tedious around uneven handwriting in a tight space. Does anyone have a software package which they've found really helps to make old script more readable? If so, what method or tool within that package works best? -- Resources for Alsace-Lorraine list members: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~valorie/Alsace-Lorraine-L.htm ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ALSACE-LORRAINE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message