Restore an old yellow document with Photoshop

Today we will see an easy way to make an old yellowish document like a new. In this lesson we will try to restore the colors of the document and make it more readable. I have chosen the following unreadable document from Google images.

1. Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Select the yellows and put -100 to Saturation to make the document more white.
2. Adjustments > Selective Color. Select the Whites and put -100% to Black.
3. Adjustments > Selective Color. Select the Blacks and put +100% to Black.
4. Adjustments > Selective Color. Select the Neutrals and put +20% to Black.

In order to bold the letters more, we will create a new layer with only the letters. To do that:

1. Select your first layer. 

2. Then go to Select >Color Range

3. With the ink tool that comes out, select a very black colored letter. And click OK.

Now we have created a new level with only the letters chosen. We can do a lot of things from here. A small example is to change the colors of the letters of the document. To do that

1. Double click the new layer that has only the letters chosen.

2. Select the Color Overlay and choose the color that you want. I have chosen the blue color, Click Ok.

There are a lot of choices. Double Click the new layer and select the Drop Shadow to make the letters shadowed (it makes them pseudo 3-D) Experiment!!

Our purpose is to make the letters more bold. So we do the following.

1. Double click the new layer that has only the letters chosen.

2. Select the Color Overlay and choose the total black. Click Ok.

3. Press a Ctrl - J to copy another layer on top of the others.

Result: