scanned line art

[jca]

everytime I ink something and then scan it, the scanner still shows a little white/gray near the lines so I cant get a really clean version of it on photoshop. I already tried scanning at 300 dpi in black and white, but then I lose line thickness and quality. I dont know how to make the picture just black and white without losing the quality of the picture. Any help?

[Elwell]

By "black and white" I assume you mean bitmap mode? 300 dpi isn't anywhere near the resulution you need to get a clean scan of lineart. Try 1200 if your scanner can do it.

[John P.]

Scan it in as grayscale instead of black&white, then play with contrast/lighting and levels afterwards to clean it up.

[egerie]

levels give you more control on making your lines more crispy. You should work with black and white without ANY antialiasing.
As John P. said, scan in grayscale (or turn your scan to grayscale), use levels to reduce de number of colours. I'd make a last pass with Contrast at full blast to make sure there aren't any pesky gray pixels anywhere.

[bgermain]

You can't scan grayscale without antialiasing (as far as I know).

Why do you need such a clean version?

[Form]

i had the same problem when i first started scanning lineart


have you tried adobe streamline, it converts to vector images and smoothes your lines.

[bgermain]

You can also take your scan into Pshop, make it the top layer, and change the layer to Multiply. Then start coloring on a layer underneath it.

[Adam]

Somewhere out there is this thing called "Mac's Remove White" filter for photoshop, which i positively adore. Basically, the higher the lowest RGB value the more transparent a pixel is made. So for a line drawing you can scan it in and then do a mac's remove white and then color on the layer underneath (much like bgermain's sugg), because all the white areas (which have a VERY high lowest RGB val) have been basically removed. I dunno where this filter is originally from, I got it from a DSG'er months and months ago.

[soul8o8]

..it all depends on what you want to do with your lineart..

if you're gonna print it in black and white then scan in 1200 dpi. Modern RIPers easily work in 1400dpi. (A RIP is the machine that etches your digital file onto a metal plate to be used in a large scale printer..) If you want more control then scan in 1200dpi in grayscale and use Threshold to convert to purely b/w..

If you want to print in color I'd still suggest you use a high resolution - like 600-800 dpi. Scan your lineart in grayscale and use Curves or Levels to produce crisp lines. Then create a new layer and set it to "multiply" and use that for coloring (or set your lineart layer as multiply.. doesn't really matter as long as your background is white..)

Remember: 300dpi is a shitty resolution! it works for photos and such because photos usually has a very flowy look. But all text in all newspapers and magazines is printed in around 1400dpi! Take a magazine and look at that text! it is supersharp! if you want your lineart to be as sharp you need that resolution! You can get it in two ways: either scan in 1200dpi or convert your art to vectors (for example with streamline) but then don't forget you have to keep working in a vector-based format to keep that rez.!

(1200dpi in full color is simply too much because it produces too large files - then use 600dpi..)



..somehow i feel that this didn't answer your question ;) oh well.. :)

[EVIL]

at school we use a program from adobe called streamline wich converts your lineart into vector. wich gives bad ass results. so you can save it as AI format and open it in photoshopw here you set your size and desired dpi and badaboom. there is your lineart nice and crisp

[talmir]

whenever I use streamline I get crappy results, seems to remove most of my lines, and comes up with smudges and stuff where none were before.. anyone have any tuts or hints on using it?

[Ian Mack]

Great thread! I've always had this problem myself. I'm afraid I can't add anything more to what these guys have said tho.

[Landmate]

I recomend inking digitaly. In the long run it offers you more.

http://www.porktaco.com/nike_step.jpg

[soul8o8]

landmate - do you do lineart inking in vectors or pixels?