Are there any photo editing tools that can "enhance" the clarity of photographed documents?

[OmarWoodward]

Not hoping for any high-tech, Sci-fi stuff, but I'm looking for any editing tools that can help at least somewhat improve the clarity and legibility of photographed legal documents for my job. Often, these documents need to be shared digitally, and every detail needs to be clear and readable (esp. documents with small print or annotations). So, can anyone recommend software for this? Or maybe a service that does it for you?

 

[bunnspecial]

In pretty much any photo editing software, free or paid, adjusting the global contrast can help a lot in this sort of situation. The "sharpen" slider(sometimes called the unsharp mask), which increases local contrast(overly simplified, but basically if it sees light gray next to dark gray it makes the light gray closer to white and the dark gray closer to black) can work wonders. Tools like "clarity" and "dehaze"(that' s what Adobe calls them-I imagine other editors have similar tools that may be called something different) do this also. but are a bit more nuanced in how they approach it.

All of these selective contrast tools usually need a light hand when you're editing photos as they can introduce weird artifacts and cause "blotchiness" around fine details. For your use, though, this might be an advantage as these artifacts that look weird in a photo can make text easier to read-I've cranked them up before to read text on a sign in a photo or things like that.

Don't underestimate the value too of inverting the colors, especially combined with the above. Yes it will look weird, but if the goal is just reading the text, that's often a worthwhile tradeoff

 

[kenoh]

Also remember to use a tool that is non-destructive or that you enhance a copy of an original so that no legal issues arise from "amended" documents - I am sure you understand this better than I do.

Also, have you tried using phone apps such as Google image enhance or the likes of camscanner which allow you to take a picture of a receipt for example and it enhances the text. I think Microsoft Lens does the same - part of the Office 365 mobile apps. I use it for making expense receipts more legible.

Caveat: these are OK for a page at a time type work. For bulk enhancing, maybe look to a printer equipped with document management features such as Exstream technology which is designed to scan, interpret and automatically file for you. If this is for a large need or project, or indeed an ongoing solution for a company, then that would be my first port of call. Opentext have some very good enterprise tools for this matter

OpenText Legal Content and Knowledge Management

OpenText Legal Content and Knowledge Management solutions help professionals securely manage and quickly find information for increased efficiency.

www.opentext.com

 

[Ben J.]

I recently found out that the Preview app actually has bult-in OCR, optical character recognition. Open an image, and when you hover over text, the pointer turns into a cursor and lets you select the text, which can then be copied and pasted into a text editor and re-formatted. I find it very useful. Might be an option for you.

 

[tizeye]

For clarity and legibility as you described, scan the original document at a higher dpi as the source is most important. Also, in Lightroom, love the clarity slider. That said...

While not legal documents as you described, photos in general - original source document is most important. Unfortunately, during the past year I have been tasked to create a memorial slideshow video for two family members and another for an existing client's sister. NEVER AGAIN! Ignoring the emotional issue, with a "call for photos" the vast majority illustrates the "original source" issue. The majority of photos received were Facebook and other social media pulls. Even my mother, noone could find the original of the professional H&S shot she use for business and got the Facebook photo that was so small I would not print to an 11x14 without pixelation. Likewise all those photos that social media crunched their algorithms and reduced sized would pixelate within the video when shown on a 65" screen.

In my research to resolve the issue, I found two programs where could increase the file size and was able to minimize distortion. Topaz, which I didn't own, and On1 Photo Raw which I took the opportunity to upgrade to 2023. It did a great job on 95% of the photos, and the other 5% were hopeless. For my mother's photo which was placed on the counter during the Memorial, and a copy given to my brother and sisters, the maximum size the file would print was 4x6 and that was pushing it, as technically it was the size for a wallet photo. I took the print with studio lighting and took a photo of it with a 42mp camera, processed the RAW file, and had my local printer professionally print it. That definitely got around the small original file size.

 

[GrandCiel]

Photo AI by Topaz Labs has a number of features including a "Preserve Text" Enhancement that works well.

Preserve Text

Improves the quality of text, shapes, and details distorted by denoising, sharpening, or upscaling the image.

https://www.topazlabs.com/topaz-photo-ai

 

[Ray2]

Notwithstanding the above advice, it might be beneficial if you described what you believe are issues that need improving. While you may know, based on what you’ve shared with is it could be anything from camera shake to white balance to lens distortion.

 

[Strider64]

When my late father passed away, I only had an old carbon copy of his WWII discharge papers from the Navy. I wanted to arrange military funeral honors for him, but when the mortician reviewed the document, she noticed his date of birth and said, "It's impossible that he enlisted in the Navy at 17 years old." I was upset by her tone, especially since it was possible at that time with written permission. She then informed me that only an original copy of his discharge papers would be accepted, which could only be obtained by writing to the federal government. My point is, legal documents must come from the original source if they are to be used officially.