[digiKam-users] managing old documents

[Gilles Caulier]

Hi,

With this kind of documents, i use :

-Restoration to remove artifact and increase sharpness.
-Sharp again with Refocus or Unsharp Mask
-Change the Gamma or the Contrast.
-Reduce colors with White Balance : it's better for text
-And save in lossless format of course for archiving.

All can be done in BQM in batch. Just found the right settings, save
in a workflow and voilà... take a coffee and process your items in
batch.

Note: in recent release, i integrated the GMicQt tool as digiKam and
showfoto plugin. This tool has plenty of advanced and intelligent
filters (too much in fact). Experiment, test, and report here of
course.

https://gmic.eu/

As French is your first language, take a look here and enjoy :

https://linuxfr.org/news/g-mic-2-7-0-une-rentree-pleine-de-style-pour-le-traitement-d-images

GMic is a monster...

Best regards

Gilles Caulier

Le mer. 6 mai 2020 à 11:17, jdd at dodin.org <jdd at dodin.org> a écrit :
>
> Hello :-)
>
> What I will ask is not about digikam, but showfoto or may be GIMP.
>
> work in progress:
>
> http://dodin.org/luciendodin/index.php?n=Biographie.LucienDodinPereCahier
>
> (sorry, only in french)
>
> It's a document from 1883 (yes, no error :-) by my gran father.
>
> Given the nature of the document: very fragile old paper, too large for
> a scanner (I couldn't find an A3 scanner at reasonable price), I use
> photos. Now from a smartphone moto G4+, very good image wise.
>
> But. I get results like this one:
>
> https://www.cjoint.com/doc/20_05/JEgivUDTH5k_IMG-20200505-144724.jpg
>
> pretty hard to read :-(
>
> On a photo forum, a friend said he could have a pretty good result with
> an application I don't know "color fx pro", obviously not on Linux :-(,
> that is already much better than the original (for my purpose: better
> readability)
>
> https://www.cjoint.com/doc/20_05/JEgiMLo0vzP_Untitled.JPG
>
> the setup is:
>
> https://www.cjoint.com/doc/20_05/JEgiMk8lNnP_Capture-d%E2%80%99e%CC%81cran-2020-05-06-a%CC%80-10.37.48.png
>
> obviously it's a tone control that makes clear tones lighters and medium
> one (text) darker
>
> is there a way to have a similar (or better result with showfoto?
> eventually with GIMP (I'm much more familiar with showfoto than from gimp)?
>
> thanks
> jdd
> --
> http://dodin.org