How to Make Washed Out Pencil Clearer?
February 25, 2016 6:53 PM Subscribe
So whoever bashed up my bumper kindly left their number. Problem is, the rain and snow washed out some of the digits. (The search space is >100, which is more people than I really want to cold call.) Any way to bring out whatever smidges of graphite are left? Without, you know, university level signal processing software?
Scan it and toss it into Paint.net? Play with the contrast and darkness levels?
posted by Freedomboy at 7:21 PM on February 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Freedomboy at 7:21 PM on February 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Can you check out the underside of the paper and see if there's an impression you could examine?
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:28 PM on February 25, 2016
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:28 PM on February 25, 2016
If you don't have a good photo editing program and Paint doesn't do the job, post a high res image (scanned if possible) and I'll see if Photoshopping it can help.
posted by ananci at 7:36 PM on February 25, 2016
posted by ananci at 7:36 PM on February 25, 2016
Post an image here. We did this once several years ago with a license plate number.
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:45 PM on February 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:45 PM on February 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
Yes, lots of skilled image manipulators around here. Just crop out and post the digits you're unsure of if you want to avoid posting this person's whole phone number online.
posted by contraption at 10:33 PM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by contraption at 10:33 PM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also most phone apps have contrast and brightness levels in either their native photo program or free apps.
posted by Crystalinne at 1:13 AM on February 26, 2016
posted by Crystalinne at 1:13 AM on February 26, 2016
N-thing post a de-identifiable hu res scan of what you have! There's a whole hive of us crackshot 'shoppers champing at the bit to have chomp of it! Heck, I've fired up my Photoshop in eager anticipation of it already!!
posted by Philby at 2:00 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Philby at 2:00 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, guys! Here are five scans of the vague missive. The last one is the highest resolution. I also lowered contrast to preserve information. I preserved the clear digits for comparison.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx9OD1UWk4g_S005SEY3VXZwVFU
posted by musofire at 8:21 AM on February 26, 2016
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx9OD1UWk4g_S005SEY3VXZwVFU
posted by musofire at 8:21 AM on February 26, 2016
Don't have permission to view.
posted by catatethebird at 9:23 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by catatethebird at 9:23 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
It almost looks deliberately badly written at the end, though I think the last digit is clearly 4 (that tail doesn't look like part of the number to me), reducing your number of possibilities to 10.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:33 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:33 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm with Pope Guilty. I think it's intentionally badly written; also, pencil shouldn't really be washed out by water.
I ran the image through some photoshop sharpening, contrast adjustment, looking at different channels etc, and didn't seem to get any more detail out of that second or third digit. It seems almost like they didn't even write four digits though?
02?4
posted by gregr at 11:11 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
I ran the image through some photoshop sharpening, contrast adjustment, looking at different channels etc, and didn't seem to get any more detail out of that second or third digit. It seems almost like they didn't even write four digits though?
02?4
posted by gregr at 11:11 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Looks like it's a cell phone number.
I feel as though it looks as if the numbers have been deliberately obscured, it seems like they are crammed into a small space compared to the rest of the writing. And just saying "Call me" without a name doesn't bode well for the person genuinely wanting to be reached. But, maybe they were drunk and not managing writing very well.
It looks like felt tip marker to me, not pencil -- what is it?
It almost looks deliberately badly written at the end, though I think the last digit is clearly 4 (that tail doesn't look like part of the number to me), reducing your number of possibilities to 10.
Pope Guilty, my intention is not to quibble with your answer but it seems like you might have left some info out that the OP could use. if there are 10 possibilities that implies that you could make out 3 of the last 4 digits. To me it looks like there is just a zero at the beginning of that group, and I suspect many other people are also only able to make out that number. If you can make out an additional digit between the 0 and that last one I'm guessing the OP would find that helpful.
posted by yohko at 11:15 AM on February 26, 2016
I feel as though it looks as if the numbers have been deliberately obscured, it seems like they are crammed into a small space compared to the rest of the writing. And just saying "Call me" without a name doesn't bode well for the person genuinely wanting to be reached. But, maybe they were drunk and not managing writing very well.
It looks like felt tip marker to me, not pencil -- what is it?
It almost looks deliberately badly written at the end, though I think the last digit is clearly 4 (that tail doesn't look like part of the number to me), reducing your number of possibilities to 10.
Pope Guilty, my intention is not to quibble with your answer but it seems like you might have left some info out that the OP could use. if there are 10 possibilities that implies that you could make out 3 of the last 4 digits. To me it looks like there is just a zero at the beginning of that group, and I suspect many other people are also only able to make out that number. If you can make out an additional digit between the 0 and that last one I'm guessing the OP would find that helpful.
posted by yohko at 11:15 AM on February 26, 2016
I'm reading the first two of the last grouping as 07. I of course may well be wrong.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:44 PM on February 26, 2016
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:44 PM on February 26, 2016
The writer's 9's and 4's are straight on the bottom, where the last digit has a curve. I say it's a partially erased 8.
posted by daisyace at 6:15 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by daisyace at 6:15 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm not convinced the tail is meant to be part of the 4, is the thing.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:24 PM on February 26, 2016
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:24 PM on February 26, 2016
It doesn't look washed out to me at all. I'd say it's a case of "My girlfriend and the 3 people who saw me hit the car think I'm writing my number, but I'm actually going to just scribble a bit after this 0."
posted by mmoncur at 4:21 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by mmoncur at 4:21 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
To me it looks like letters. 514-691-OJAY. The O could be a letter or a number.
posted by MexicanYenta at 10:55 PM on February 27, 2016
posted by MexicanYenta at 10:55 PM on February 27, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by axismundi at 7:12 PM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]