Photoshop experts: removing bleed-through from a scanned magazine page

In My Humble Opinion
1

I would like to have a clean version of the image on this page, scanned from a 1991 magazine:

However, you’ll notice that there is quite a lot of bleed-through from the back side of the page. Here is that page:

Is there any way to use the second image to eliminate the bleed-through from the first one? I’m not necessarily asking you to do it, but some suggestions for the tools and procedures to use would be helpful.

FYI, I’m not using the full PS program, I have Photoshop Elements 14, in case that makes a difference. Thanks.

2

Are you working with an existing scan of a magazine you don’t have in your hands?

I ask because if you have the magazine, try putting a piece of black paper behind each page as you scan it–that will greatly reduce the amount of bleed-through as long as it’s not actual ink that seeped through to the other side.

3

I don’t have the original, only the scan.

4

Drat!

5

You can experiment with the Posterize command (assuming Photoshop Elements has it); or use the Replace Color (if Elements has that one), basically replacing existing colors with themselves but using the “fuzziness” slider to see if you can include the portions that show bleedthrough from the back side (if the Replace Color command in Elements has the “fuzziness” slider, that is).

6

A lot of the bleed-through could be pretty easily removed (actually covered over) in the areas with no type. The bleed in the paragraphs of type would be tougher.

7

I’m not a Photoshop expert anymore (moved on when Adobe went to subscriptions), and I’ve limited experience with Elements, but…

I’d probably do the illustration separately from the black/red text on white. For the text section select all the black and red, expand the selection by 0.4 pixels, feather the selection by 0.2 pixels. Reverse the selection, then fill with off-white.

For the illustration I’d use a combination of tools (I don’t remember all their PS names), along with appropriate masking and selecting. Retouch tool, clone tool, blur tool. For some parts you could set the retouch or clone tool on an area with no bleed thru, and use the tool in “lighten” mode on the parts with bleed thru.

It wouldn’t be perfect, but after half an hour of work it would pass casual inspection.

If the photo in the scan is visibly screened, you’ll want to de-screen it. The procedure is widely described on the web.

8

Does this work?

9

Wow, that’s fantastic! Thanks! Could you please explain what you did?

Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough, but I’m only interested in the image of the model. Sorry for the confusion and if @GuanoLad went to a lot of trouble clearing up the rest of the page.

Is there anything I can do to remove or reduce the faint remaining bleed-through in the picture?

10

I just played with the contrast levels and colour settings until it got a good balance of everything.

The image is the difficult part to do, it’s got too many fine details to be able to easily clean it up. I could have put more effort in with the clone tool etc but it would take all day.

11

Thanks for what you’ve done. I’ll keep playing with it and see what I can do.

12

If you have the scan of the page that caused the bleed through, You could add it to another layer, flip it horizontally so it matches, then subtract it from the main layer (the picture you want). Adjust the transparency and other image settings on the second layer until it cancels the bleed through on the first layer. No guarantees, but that’s probably what I’d try first.

13

Thanks, Sam. I was guessing something like that was possible (which is why I mentioned that I have the back page), but I haven’t worked with levels enough to have a good grasp on just how to do it. I’ll play around with your advice and see what I can do.

14

Here’s something you can play with. I did this with Photoshop, so I don’t know if the commands match PE’s.

  1. Open both pages in PE.
  2. For p. 12, select Image>Image rotation>Flip canvas horizontal.
  3. Select all and copy.
  4. Go to p. 11 and select Edit>Paste. This will put the flipped p. 12 on top of p.11. The reverse type will overlap perfectly.
  5. Use the Eyedropper tool and click the bluish-yellow area to the right of the rectangle containing the cassette tapes.
  6. Use the Paintbucket tool and click on the blue areas, filling them with the new color.
  7. With the top layer still selected, go to the drop down menu just below the “Layers” tab label. Change the transparency setting from Normal to Color.
  8. Select the bottom layer and go to Image>Adjustments>Brighten/Contrast. Increase Brightness about 50%.

The reverse type will look mostly cancelled out, but the colors will be less saturated than the original. You could increase the Contrast in the bottom layer to darken the image, but the reverse type will become more visible.

15

Thanks for those detailed instructions, @Knowed_Out. But don’t I want to flip page 11, so as not to reverse the image I’m interested in?

16

No, keep p. 11 unflipped. You already see p. 12’s reversed type bleeding through on p. 11. By itself, p. 12’s type is not reversed, but flipping it will match the type orientation of p. 11.