How to clean text from background

[Hymer]

I should like to clean the tiny text from old document, I should like to give white background to the tiny text and make the text black. Is there any smart sollution for this?
Ooops, the text is turned, but the problem is the same...

[Ofnuts]

As usual, the problem is the uneven background, that severely restricts waht can be done. The usual technique to even the background:

• Duplicate the layer (it is best to start with a truly monochrome layer...)
  
• Blur the top layer until you can't see the text. In 2.8 you use Gaussian, but in 2.10 you can also use the median blur. I havn't got enough experience yet to tell which is best (media used in example below).
  
• Set the top layer to Grain Extract mode. This produces an image where the background is now a quite uniform gray.
  
• Create a layer using Layer>New from visible and use Curves/Levels to set the background to white, and adjust black for readability
  

   

[Hymer]

Thank you, it will be good result, but I have to work on it. Untill now I could not find the right setting of the curve to make the whole text readable on this old midwife-diplom from 1844... I'll try to make better photo too, but I cannot take away the glass. This is the best photo I could made about the whole. I suppose, I have to take photo about details and it will be better.

[Krikor]

It seems to me an impossible mission, at least considering the state of the document and the quality of the image made available. Maybe there might be some software for that, but if Gimp can solve this question I would also like and know how.
The best I could was:

[Ofnuts]

(04-04-2019, 09:59 AM)Hymer Wrote: Thank you, it will be good result, but I have to work on it. Untill now I could not find the right setting of the curve to make the whole text readable on this old midwife-diplom from 1844... I'll try to make better photo too, but I cannot take away the glass. This is the best photo I could made about the whole. I suppose, I have to take photo about details and it will be better.

Have the full size picture somewhere?

[Hymer]

Thank you for your efforts. The quality of the photo is poor. It is possible to read the text even on the left-side on the original diplom. My friend has a professional camera, it will give a result. Maybe it ill be better with 3-4 shots. I'll show the result as soon as my friend will come by me with his camera.