Eliminating Ruled Lines Using Photoshop

[Robert Kalman]

Try this if you have Photoshop: first use the Ruler tool to mark a line from end to end across one line guide then under Image take Rotate and Arbitrary. Hit it. That straightens the image.

If you wish then to remove the rules let me know because there a couple ways to do it easily, even automatically.

I am on my smart phone at the moment which makes it difficult to go into detail.

OK, I straightened. Ready for the next instruction.

[Robert Kalman]

They're light blue lines. Shoot the notes with Ortho film and the lines will disappear.

Maybe you can take advantage of their color and select the color somehow, but with film it would be easy.

If I can't get it to happen in Photoshop, that's what I might do, Bill. Thanks!

[Peter Mounier]

I'm not terribly adept at Photoshop, so please be patient with me, Peter. When I pull up the curve layer, my sliders at the bottom of the graph are the reverse of yours in the screen shot. (My black slider is on the left; white on the right). So I'm having a bit of difficulty matching what you're showing me in the screen shot. Also, I'm not clear about where you sampled ("..close to, but beyond the boundaries of the lined note paper.")

Robert
Ok, I made a selection with the rectangular marquee tool around the sheet of lined paper. The selection includes some background because the background is pure white, and the curve you created lightens up the lined sheet until it is white. So the sheet disappears into the background.
As for the curve you created, just click on the upper right hand slider, which controls the white point and highlights. Drag that to the left until the ruled lines disappear. The white sheet will disappear before the lines disappear. Then drag the bottom left slider, which controls the dark values, to the right until the letters are a value that you like.
Hope that helps. Peter

[Robert Kalman]

Robert
Ok, I made a selection with the rectangular marquee tool around the sheet of lined paper. The selection includes some background because the background is pure white, and the curve you created lightens up the lined sheet until it is white. So the sheet disappears into the background.
As for the curve you created, just click on the upper right hand slider, which controls the white point and highlights. Drag that to the left until the ruled lines disappear. The white sheet will disappear before the lines disappear. Then drag the bottom left slider, which controls the dark values, to the right until the letters are a value that you like.
Hope that helps. Peter

Perfect!

Thanks very much!!

[Peter Mounier]

You're welcome. Glad I could help.

[john borrelli]

Please feel free to ignore this crazy idea, I have a lot of them; I was just wondering have you ever considered making large prints and then incorporating the text into the image itself.

[Robert Kalman]

Please feel free to ignore this crazy idea, I have a lot of them; I was just wondering have you ever considered making large prints and then incorporating the text into the image itself.

Not such a crazy idea...how do you mean "incorporating the text" exactly?

[Peter De Smidt]

Press ctrl + 3, ctrl + 4, and ctrl +5 to cycle through the color channels if it's an RGB image. If the text is black and the lines are blue, one of the channels should greatly minimize the lines. Discard the other channels.

[AtlantaTerry]

I like the ruled lines. I think they say something about the person. Therefore I would keep them.

[djdister]

I like the ruled lines. I think they say something about the person. Therefore I would keep them.

I agree, which is why I suggested to keep the ruled lines in an earlier post. How someone writes on lined paper can be just as telling about the person as how someone writes a note with no lines to guide them...