restoring a damaged document

[Atlantis]

To keep things in one place I decided to post the document I've been working on here.



I decided to restart complety because I suffered some Photoshopflue in december.
Today I started to recreate the printed font and dotted lines in separate layers & groups. After comparing to my fontcollection I decided that Modern no. 20 would be the best match. All I need to find is the German "ringeless" that is hidden somewhere :D
One of the problems is the original colour of the document. The photo itself does not have the blue & magenta blur, only some sepia probably from aging and a little damage.
I assumed that the paper of the document is made of a more absorbing kind than that of the photo and that would cause the blue and magenta colouring of a probably originally off-white paper. So I made a new textured off-white background.



I also assumed that would be the cause of the slight distortion of the paper and printed text.
So I put the photo on a separate layer and slightly distorted the document back.
The next step will be to restore the photo.
Followed by the biggest challenge : to get the handwriting and stamps right.

[Hannie]

Looking good so far, Atlantis!

Hannie

[GP]

By German "ringeless" you mean ß ?
Try holding down the > Alt (or Option? for mac)< key and typing the numbers 0223.
I believe the header of the document should read: Personalausweis als Paßersatz. Can't help you with the handwriting. Maybe if I could look at the higher resolution image.

Gerlinde  :)

[klassylady25]

Ah, Gerlinde, you've just opened yourself up for translations.  How did you come by that font?   Inquiring minds want to know.

Candice

[GP]

Candice,

I'm not sure I understand your question about the font. Do you mean how did I find the ascii code for the German special characters? They are taped on a little note to my keyboard. Since I'm German, living in America, they come in handy at times.

Gerlinde  ^-^

[klassylady25]

That's what I thought.  lol  I sure wouldn't know where to find them.  And having a sister-n-law that came from Germany doesn't count.  :o)  I knew you'd have an answer. 

[schen]

What is the meaning of a recreated document?  Maybe I am in the minority opinion here.  I would not want a piece of recreated document.

[Tess (Tassie D)]

Here's the keyboard shortcuts for german letters. http://german.about.com/library/blcharcodes.htm

[Ausimax]

Schen, I know what you mean, but the question remains, why would the owners have submitted the document or any photo if the did not want it restored? They already have the damaged document as a memento, so we would have to assume they wish to have a copy that they can read, and perhaps display.

We are kidding ourselves if we think any restoration we do is anything but a "re-creation", the memories and psychic value always remain with the damaged item, all we ever provide is a re-creation of what the original looked like.

I just don't know what you could do to a document like that to improve it, other than re-create it and the try and age it.

I have restored several damaged documents, and the background is always the problem as there is so much damage, distortion and colour change, I try and find the original colour and texture of the paper and create a new background.

I then place that layer under the document, place a mask over the document and paint on that to mask out the damaged background.

I try to avoid using replacement fonts, unless there is absolutely no alternative, preferring to repair the text, if the original background is distorted the lines of text have to be realigned to fit the rest of the document, even with the best of efforts the result is usually a pristine looking document.

Then isn't that the purpose of "restoring" anything?

Max

[Mhayes]

Max, I agree with you when you say why else would the owner have submitted the document if they did not want it restored. I think the restoration will be kept with the original as a reference.

Margie

[schen]

Thanks for your responses. 

why would the owners have submitted the document or any photo if the did not want it restored?

That is exactly the question I have.  Yes, they wanted their document restored.  Were they expecting to receive a copy that looks exactly like before it was damaged?  What were their expectations?  Or what were the expectations we gave them?

Every time I saw a faceless photo, I wondered.  This document without words is in the same category as a faceless photo to me.

[Mhayes]

Every time I saw a faceless photo, I wondered. This document without words is in the same category as a faceless photo to me.

Schen, point well taken. I wonder if people come in with the expectation that we can work magic and bring the wording back; if so they are going to be really disappointed. Maybe this is a case where an email to the owners explaining that the damaged document can be cleaned up, but the missing writing cannot be brought back.

Margie

[Ausimax]

Atlantis, to help find the writing, on a copy of the original dupe the layer and set the dupe to "Multiply" blending mode, you may have to repeat this several times (I did it 4 times on the small copy you posted) then flatten the image and run Brightness/Contrast on it.

I have found in the past that pushing the contrast sometimes helps, you may have to try a variety of torture methods to get the info out of it, use another layer and copy any letters you get from each method, the problem being on this one is it being written in German, unless you can read German it will make guesstimating what the missing letters may be difficult.

Lots of luck, I saw that one in the gallery and ran for my life. :funny:


Max

[Atlantis]

Thanks Gerlinde for the ß code  :wnw: And "als paßersatz" makes perfect sense. Maybe he lost his original passport.
And thank you all for thinking along with me.

I think the goal here is to restore the waterdamage and the memory.
Therefore I focused on the photo and the handwriting. The photo seems to be done now, the handwriting and the stamps are my challenge for the next days.
Maybe I can get my old tablet back in action when I recover the lost pen  ;) tracing with the mouse turned out to be a pain.
I did manage to mask back some simple handwriting but some words have to many subtle lines. Some words are also hard to read because people used another writing technique than we do these days. It's almost calligraphy.
Most of the handwriting, like the familyname, is completely gone due to the damage on the paper. I'll try cloning some visible letters on to the ones that are the same but have faded like in the police stamp.
I think the waterdamage is responsible for the loss of paper and it's distortion, the bright colours and the fading of the ink used for the handwriting.
I assumed that recreating the paper and the printed font would not affect the emotional value of the document as I also think that it did not have the bright faded colours before the flooding.

A low-res next step

[klassylady25]

Do I ever hear your pain when tracing with a mouse!!!  It's really moving along very well.  I don't envy you!!   ;)