How to Isolate Line Art in Photoshop
Isolating line art from the background is a useful technique to clean up a drawing that has been scanned or photographed before presenting it. This removes any background lines, smudges or other distractions from the art. Use the Magic Wand in Photoshop to select the lines in the art work. You will have to adjust the Magic Wand tolerance setting to ensure you get all of the lines but none of the background. This should only take a few attempts, even if you have never used this tool before.
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Instructions
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1
Launch Photoshop and press “Ctrl-O.” Locate the image containing the line art in the navigation window and press “Enter.”
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2
Click the “Zoom” menu at the bottom of the window and change the zoom so all of the line art is visible, but fills as much of the window as possible.
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3
Click the “Image” menu, select “Adjustments” and select “Brightness/Contrast.” Click the “Preview” check box in the Brightness/Contrast window.
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4
Drag the “Brightness” slider to the left while watching the background for coloration, blemishes, or gray areas. These will fade as you increase the brightness. Continue dragging the slider until the line art begins to fade, then bring the slider back to just before the line art was affected. If you detect no changes in the background around the line art, click “Cancel.” Otherwise, click “OK.”
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5
Select the “Magic Wand Tool” from the Toolbox. To begin, type “20” in the “Tolerance” field located in the Options bar. Deselect “Contiguous.”
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Click on a line with the Magic Wand. A “marching ants” effect appears on the lines that were selected. Unless all of the line art and none of the remaining image is selected, press “Ctrl-D” to deselect the line art.
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Adjust the “Tolerance” in the Options Bar as needed. Increasing the tolerance will increase the amount of lines that are selected with the Magic Wand. Decreasing the tolerance will decrease the amount of lines that are selected. Continue adjusting the tolerance until all of the line art you clicked is selected, but as little of the background as possible.
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8
Click on additional lines in the artwork that were not selected already with the Magic Wand. Deselecting “Contiguous” adds additional selections to what has already been selected.
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Click the “Select” menu when you are satisfied with what has been selected. Press “Shift-Ctrl-I” to inverse the selection. The background is now selected instead of the line art. Press “Delete” to delete everything but the line art.
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Zoom in and examine the fine details of the artwork to ensure it is all intact. If additional lines have been retained, use the Eraser Tool in the Toolbox to erase them.
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