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The aim of this tutorial is to take a poor-quality image, in this case a scan of a simple logo, and make it more clearly defined so that it's usable in designs. It's worth bearing in mind that this technique doesn't change the size of the original image, so if you want something completely scalable you'd be better off with a vector approach, but if you just want to tidy up an image you've already got, this technique will be useful.
For this example I'm using a logo provided by Milo (used with permission). I'm using Photoshop CS3 but it should work exactly the same way in previous versions - there's nothing complicated here, just a little cleverness with a couple of tools.
Step 1: Open the original image
Picture_1.jpg (37.76K)
Number of downloads: 10
As you can see, there is a lot of distortion from the scan and from jpg compression, which has led to a 'dirty' texture to both background and foreground, and rather fuzzy edges. We'll be dealing with both of those problems.
Step 2: Changing the levels
Levels are like changing the brightness and contrast, but using a graph to change it all visually, which generally is a lot more intuitive and precise. Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Levels. The graph shows the proportion of pixels on a scale of intensity, so if your image has lots of black there will be lots going on in the left of the graph, lots of white then lots on the right.
Picture_2.jpg (166.23K)
Number of downloads: 9
Picture_3.jpg (389.13K)
Number of downloads: 10
Drag the left handle towards the middle a bit. This will take the darker colours and bunch them together. The effect is that our mottled grey background becomes a more solid black, because all those dark shades are being squeezed into one colour. Similarly, dragging the right handle in a bit will do the same at the other extreme. You won't notice quite so much of a different in this case because the foreground logo is red rather than white, but it'll still have enough of an effect for it to be worth doing.
Already it's looking much tidier!
Step 3: Removing some noise
There is still a bit of noise in the graphic, mainly around the edges of the logo and a little visible inside the red of the logo. The Median tool is our friend here - it looks at the pixels and takes an average of those around it, which will do a good job of getting rid of any remaining inconsistency in the colour. Go to Filter -> Noise -> Median. For this example I'm using a radius of 1 pixel, but feel free to play with that depending on the size of your image and the amount of noise still in the image. Bear in mind that the bigger the radius, the more furry the edges will become, so try to strike a good balance.
Picture_4.jpg (122.15K)
Number of downloads: 7
Picture_5.jpg (29.04K)
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Step 4: There is no step 4
Picture_6.jpg (29.98K)
Number of downloads: 10
That's it! We've cleaned up the logo and made the colours more consistent without compromising the clarity of the edges too much. Have a play, see what you can do!
