Smoothing Handwritten Letters

<p>I'm designing a logo based on my handwritten initial. I used a medium point Sharpie, scanned to a 4800x4900 Tiff, and adjusted levels to pure black and white. Now I'd like some advice on smoothing the rough edges of the image. I'm using PS CS5. So far I've attempted various combinations of the following:</p>

<ol>

<li>Blur</li>

<li>Sharpening</li>

<li>Blur AND sharpening</li>

<li>Various eraser and selection tools, but my hand is not steady enough for fine adjustments</li>

</ol>

<p>I suspect that paths and the pen tool might take me where I want to go, but I have zero experience with either. Suggestions for an appropriate method or tutorial are much appreciated.</p>

<p>I've attached an image that illustrates the extent of the problem which may only seem a problem to me. I'll accept advice on that as well.</p>

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<p>I'm a Corel guy, not an Adobe guy. When I'm dealing with that scenario, I just vectorize the hi-res bit map so that I'm dealing with curves and nodes instead of pixels. Then you can smooth things out to a mathematical perfection, and also have the line art available at any resolution you could want, up to truly huge. Different tools inspire different strategies.</p>

<p>Hi, I am sure there are many ways, and especially if you are using the pen tool. But you might want to try this one; Using the magic wand selection tool (I use CS3), set the toleramce to a level of "1" and contiguous. Now click on the blackest black, you should get a selection. At this point if you zoom 200% you might, if you are lucky, see gray pixels not selected, these are your culprits causing ragged edges. But this is not the end. You now need to go to refine edge in the upper part of photoshop, at the top next to contiguous. this is where you will get your perfect smooth edges. start here, if you need help just post.</p>

<p>Matt, thanks. I think that's what we in Adobeland call a "Smart Object." Converting and a bit of blur got rid of the jaggies. After that it was an afternoon-ish of a little selection, a little brush, a little blur, rinse, repeat to eliminate the dips and humps. The results below.<br>

Chris, I appreciate the suggestions but the Magic Wand and Quick Selection tools, along with Refine Edge, insisted on simply following the contours of the original image. No doubt it was just my inexperience.</p>

<p>Whew! Another narrow escape from having to learn the pen tool.</p>

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<p>One way I use to help get rid of the jagged edges, after say using the magic wand to clean up the back ground, is to increase the image size (pixel dimensions) by a factor or two. Then work on the image, like increase the contrast etc. then if necessary reduce the image size back to match up with other requirements.<br>

The increase in pixel count in PS seems to work well with me. </p>

<p>Matt's approach (ie, using paths) is great for exactly the reasons he gave, but can take quite a while to perfect the path, especially for logos of any complexity.</p>

<p>Chris's approach (ie, using the "refine selection" dialog) is great where speed is more important and you are willing to give up some of the incredible control you have with paths. I use a slight variant of his approach for most tasks of the sort being discussed in this thread. Specifically, I usually prefer to select using the "Quick select" tool in CS5 instead of the "Magic Wand". I then go into the "Refine Selection" dialog box and really crank up the "smooth" slider, and bring back a nice sharp edge using the "contrast" slider. I then fill the inside of the refined selection with black and the outside of the refined selection with white.</p>

<p>This nicely gets out all jaggies and most of the unwanted wiggles in the signature, but unfortunately, it also turns every sharp corner in the logo / text into a smooth curve (ie, image #2, below). To quickly recover the sharp corners, I add a layer mask and quickly put a dot of black over each sharp corner. This lets the underlying image (with the sharp corners) show through in just these areas (ie, image #3, below). </p>

<p>For comparison, I also tweaked the OP's image using the "paths" tools in PS CS5. This approach works wonderfully ((ie, image #4, below), but probably took me 5 times longer than the "refine edges" approach. </p>

<p>HTH,</p>

<p>Tom M</p><div></div>

<p>...and the final results using the masked "refine edges" approach and the "paths" approach.</p>

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