Re: Red can't be Read

["Bernard G. Cleyet & Nancy Ann Seese" <georgeann@REDSHIFT.COM>]

The interesting question is the double writing (palimpsest).  I remember my Latin teacher saying it was customary, after filling a page, to rotate 90 deg. and continue writing.  This persisted in to
the Victorian period.

bc



Doug Craigen wrote:

> Tom McCarthy wrote:
> > Are any of you amateur detectives on the side?  I have a friend who has
> > family letters from the 1800's with black ink across the page as you would
> > expect and for some reason, faded red ink running through the black and
> > pretty much at a right angle to it.  He would like to know how he could
> > bring out the red writing so it can be read (or red again!).
> > Thanks, y'all
>
> My method doesn't have much physics, at least not in the sense of
> "illuminate with this light, view through that filter".  The problem
> with these is that the red is in between the white and black so a simple
> addition/subtraction of light method isn't obvious to me.
>
> I would scan a page and look at the colors in the image, then choose a
> palette of perhaps 6 shades from black to white and 3 shades of red.
> Then apply that palette to the image so that each pixel in the image
> becomes the closest shade in the defined palette.  Now redefine all
> shades of gray to be white.  You should now have red printing on a white
> page and can further redefine colors as needed.
>
> \_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/
>
> Doug Craigen
>           http://www.dctech.com/physics/