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Cleaning up solid images in Photoshop

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:54 am
by Odemus
I'm new to the art work side of things and one of the biggest problems I'm having right now is just cleaning up the edges of a solid black (on white background) jpeg logo supplied to me by a customer.


Initially I started out on a 11" X 11" layer and tried using the line tool to keep the edges straight but it turned out the level of detail was too small for angles (I get a pixelated step effect no matter how evenly spaced I am). So what I did next was blow up the image by slapping it on a 30" X 30" layer and increasing the DPI from 72 to 200 with the thought that I could clean up the edges in an image with much higher resolution and then when I shrink it back down to size it should appear to be near perfect but this also present all kinds of problems from random program errors to the tedious nature of going practically pixel by pixel around angles and curves to remove all the unwanted gray and fill in solid black where necessary.

There has to be an easier way to use Photoshop to edit solid images so I can make them burn ready. Can Anyone help?

Re: Cleaning up solid images in Photoshop

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 9:03 am
by tompaine
Low resolution images will not have 'clean' edges. The programmes compensate for this by using anti-aliasing, putting a gradient at the edge to smooth it. If you are preparing for separations that will have to go and you are left with a saw-toothed edge.
Try about 300dpi (at final size). It wont work if you are trying to add resolution to a low-res file.
Ultimately try using a vector graphic - Corel or Illustrator. Vectors can be scaled without losing smoothness.

Re: Cleaning up solid images in Photoshop

Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 1:41 am
by franksterling
you can auto trace in illustrator giving you a vector from a pixel image.
especially with logos you should get a smooth result

Re: Cleaning up solid images in Photoshop

Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 1:42 am
by franksterling
ohh my god just saw that i answered a three year old post. lol

Re: Cleaning up solid images in Photoshop

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 2:53 pm
by Viper99
Another solution is to put a gaussian blur on the edges or you can use the extract filter to cut the image out of the white background. That is probably the best solution because it will make it easier to clean up the edges. It doesn't matter if we are answering a 3 year old question. Lol. Somebody may have the same problem and read this anyway.