A help topic for scanners and editors. Ask questions in this thread when you need help with scanning and editing. People are also available at irc://irc.rizon.net/moe-imouto for live help (time of day dependent).

ここはスキャン及び補正に関する質疑応答スレッドです。日本語での書込みも必要に応じて逐次翻訳します。

PS: mods, please help to edit them
(last update: 2011/05/25)

FAQ

Q: What type of scanner should I use?
A: Ideally, a flatbed scanner with a CCD sensor and a LED light source. Automatic document feeders are meant for scanning text and will give you terrible results. CIS sensors are weak at color reproduction while CCFL scanners are slow with inconsistent levels of brightness.

Q: I have a scanner but I'm a complete beginner. How do I scan?
A: Try the basic way of scanning first.

Q: Do I need to adjust my monitor before scanning?
A: At least the very least, set your monitor's color temperature to 6500k. Low gamma/contrast will also help to visualize noises.

Q: What filters should I use while processing scans?
A: Greycstoration is the primary filter for scans. Gaussian blur, selective Gaussian blur, surface blur, NeatImage, Noiseware, NoiseNinja, UnsharpMask2 are secondary.

Q: Why are my results overfiltered?
A: Try fine-tuning your results with a luminance mask, or lowering the strength settings of your filters.

Q: How do I fix the weird colors on my scans?
A: Familiarize yourself with color histograms, color management, and other related matters first. Then you can manually adjust colors with tonecurves, comparing scans to digital cgs painted by the same artist you scanned. The basic color adjusting method without comparison is found on here.

Q: Can I use a same process for any scans?
A: No. It will always change depending on the type of screening and paper.

Links

• G'MIC for Gimp, GREYCstoration for PS (recommended noise reduction filter) (PS version is higher quality)
• UnsharpMask2 for Gimp, UnsharpMask2 for PS (recommended sharpening filter)
• moe.imouto.org wiki: image editing help
• moe.imouto.org wiki: tag type: faults
• 自炊技術wiki (Japanese)

Uh... excuse me? I have a question. I'm not that new here but I'm going to manage my account soon but anyway, I wanted to ask if I can talk to someone here because I'm not so good at drawing anime but I want that as a theme for my magazine at my school. My teachers say I can't use images that have author rights and... I want to know if there's anyone who can draw something for me or lend my their images or... anything. xP Thanks for your time.
Eiko.

we aren't drawers. ask someone at http://www.deviantart.com/

This thread seems a bit dead, hopefully it will be fine to post here :)

Got two questions regarding editing/cleaning.
I've got this scan I'm trying to clean. After sending it through Noise Ninja(x2) then GreyCstoration I get something like this .

Overall it seems fine, except for the rather noticable lines on the right hand side of the image. The ones near the top I'm guessing could be simply clone stamped away. The ones near the bottom are a bit more trouble.
There also seems to be smaller lines over the entire image (It's mostly noticable on the left leg). The only way I've managed to get rid of them is using grayC with anisotropy set to 0.2 or below, but this tends to make the image a bit too blurry.

Questions are mainly:
1. What would be the best method to get rid of the lines on bottom right of the image?
2. Is there any automatic way to get rid of the multiple small lines on the image, or would it have to be done manually (via the clone stamp/healing brush/other)?

The original scan is in such poor condition I would have given up.

I'd agree with Radio, the initial quality is really too horrible. Unless you plan on tons of reconstruction, either find another source or move on.

Hello,

I'm looking for advise how to clean http://puu.sh/7mncx.jpg

This is my attempt http://puu.sh/7moiv.jpg
I ran it through topaz denoise and clean, but they killed all the details so I manually fixed the details. Albeit it looks decent (to me), but I have almost no experience with color pages, so I'm looking for your opinions, or your ways of cleaning.

Thanks!

nphuongsun93 said:
Hello,

I'm looking for advise how to clean http://puu.sh/7mncx.jpg
This is my attempt http://puu.sh/7moiv.jpg
so I'm looking for your opinions, or your ways of cleaning.

dear, sun93
actually you can try read image edit or this one

anyway this is my ......... lol.... cleaning technique...it's far from perfect but..hope can help

1.duplicate layer....and clean some dirt with clone stamp
2.duplicate layer again ....i change 300dpi into 250dpi....(to make it easier to filter)...
3.then i use box blur 1px
4.duplicate layer again......I use smart blur radius=2 threshold=15
5.give some final touch...on blush (if blur to much use eraser) and eyes(color it use overlay)
6. save into png

my result: http://i.want.tf/to/that/H7t5ao.png

version 2 (skip...step2) : http://i.want.tf/to/that/1pv9xKj.jpg

it seems a lot of the details are lost@_@

Thanks K@tsu, but the guides on here aren't so helpful because most of the images referred to are gone. Right now I'm just playing with filters and see what each setting does, can hardly see the differences tho -.-

Seems like fireattack edited one too. It looks less blurred than yours. (I hope he posts his way here too)

1 question, how does changing dpi affect filtering?

nphuongsun93 said:
the guides on here aren't so helpful because most of the images referred to are gone.

Seems like fireattack edited one too. It looks less blurred than yours. (I hope he posts his way here too)

1 question, how does changing dpi affect filtering?

yes...the image seem broken.....and i think you can PM fireattack.....about broken image on image edit, also you can ask about cleaning tutorial ....well fireattack is moderator after all

to changing dpi is very simple, just click image size and change the dpi value on resolution box

Why did you change your account akusiapa lol?

I'm too lazy to write down the steps since I just used midzki's actions (with modified parameters) give me some time..

and I'm surprised that topaz can did the job on color image well (despite the detail loss, its sharpen result looks good)..

post #282197 - It looks like that topaz Clean (Don't use Topaz denoise, it fits b&w manga pages better since it can keep screentone well) can post-process the results from my ordinary procedure (using greyc).

But I also tried to use it directly to process the raws, not good at all.

fireattack said:
Why did you change your account akusiapa lol?

I'm too lazy to write down the steps since I just used midzki's actions (with modified parameters) give me some time..

and I'm surprised that topaz can did the job on color image well (despite the detail loss, its sharpen result looks good)..

>lol, well, there's so many reason, spoilerthe brief explanation is ......... bad mood
>lazy...lol....i know you will said that...
>topaz...? is that a plug in?.....i never use any plug in for photoshop before ...hmm may be i should try it

to changing dpi is very simple, just click image size and change the dpi value on resolution box

How does dpi affect filtering? (If I'm not printing it) I always changed dpi to 72 so I can typeset easier, wasn't sure of the effect.

@fireattack
I got the topaz and greyc plugs in. (unfamiliar with both :\)
May you post the settings or parameters you used?

Edit: My attempt, I think I figured it out. http://puu.sh/7qULe.jpg
kinda finished redrawing too, pm me if anyone wants a textless version http://puu.sh/7qUVs.jpg

And thanks fireattack & K@tsu for the tips! *back to lurk*

nphuongsun93 said:
How does dpi affect filtering? (If I'm not printing it) I always changed dpi to 72 so I can typeset easier, wasn't sure of the effect.

sun93, i'm not really sure...i'm doing that based experiment.....but if you copy a image (with small dpi) and paste into new blank (with higher dpi) the image will be shrink

(p.s : i like using "sun" than "hihohahi", since remind me with great master of sun style tai chi chuan "Sun Lu Tang")

Anyone knows how to deal with this kind of paper texture? http://puu.sh/7yWo9.jpg

nphuongsun93 said:
Anyone knows how to deal with this kind of paper texture? http://puu.sh/7yWo9.jpg

I use the method , that i mentioned above,but the result : not_really_good

Welp yea, I guess if I want to redraw I will replicate the paper texture then.

I found waifu2x is extremely useful for eliminate scanning noise. It keeps details almost perfectly, sharp, clean and easy to use.

original

1st pass

2nd pass

So, try out if you interested!

TopSpoiler said:
I found waifu2x is extremely useful for eliminate scanning noise. It keeps details almost perfectly, sharp, clean and easy to use.

original

1st pass

2nd pass

So, try out if you interested!

It does work great when the dpi is moderate. Hard to deal with high-dpi scan though.

TopSpoiler said:
I found waifu2x is extremely useful for eliminate scanning noise.

I've never used it as people abuse it to upscale images, but these were rather interesting. What were your settings?

Radioactive said:
I've never used it as people abuse it to upscale images, but these were rather interesting. What were your settings?

It seems like denoise level 3, and that's the only setting anyway lol (make sure to use 2d illust model though).

I tried with newest Waifu2x-caffe and the result is quite similar with his.

fireattack said:
It does work great when the dpi is moderate. Hard to deal with high-dpi scan though.

Yes. The noise pattern should fine enough to the filter aware it as noise.

Radioactive said:
I've never used it as people abuse it to upscale images, but these were rather interesting. What were your settings?

Like fireattack said, use only denoise filter. I applied denoise level 2 twice per each image, using waifu2x-converter-cpp

Is there a way to deal with vertical yellow lines in scans? You can see them in http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/701675 (Seems to appear in most of his scans)

I'm using GIMP 2.8 with the G'MIC plug-in

What is the best way to scan a tapestry wall scroll? Which settings should I use, or can someone please tell me where I can contact someone to help me? Please I would really appreciate it.

I tried scanning the tapestry wallscroll I got and these are my results.
http://i.imgur.com/LPHXANf.jpg
Can someone please share a few tips and pointers with me? I'm a complete beginner when it comes to scanning but I really want to scan this scroll in good quality if possible, it might just be that the fabric isn't good material for scanning, that's something I would like to know as well.

one way to improve the quality is to have a black construction paper position behind the scanned works, so that the light won't bleed and the contrast of the scan would be improved a bit.

Else, this is as good as you get for a raw scan of fabric, all other improvements is done by digitally process aka "cleaning" them.

I used a piece of black stuff I had, but the thing is since the fabric is semi transparent, the scan ends up looking extremely dark. So I used the white panel that comes with the Epson and these are my results.

Thanks for the helpful advice. So I guess I'm better off asking someone to vector the sample image I have rather than trying to scan the wallscroll if I want to use it for a daki cover, right? That's what I thought.