how to cut text from picture

[amk]

Hi,
As a gift for my son for his 10th birthday i want to make something special.
I have some old scanned letters.
I want to cut some text from it and put it on new background.
I cannot just change background in old picture because project I am planning to make is to have kind of "scrap book" with pieces of letters, pictures, faces on one background.
have no idea how to cut letters only, without background.
I appreciate any suggestions. Thank you!

[NEMESIS]

Are you familiar with Pen Tool? I think for you it would be the best to trace them out and make selection from path and copy them on separate layer.

Post image in forums so i can give you better description.

[amk]

Nemesis,
Thank you for your advice
Right now I'm not on the front of my comp to be able to send you a sample...
But imagine you got some letter years ago...
Hand writing...
Blue pen...
Two colours background...
Pink and white 2 mm thin stripes.

I was thinking there might be easier way to do it
like magic wand, to mark this same colour text,
move it without background on another layer.

I tried this awesome magic wand...
But unfortunatelly it cuts away text and let's me copy background only with visible empty space after cut letters... I can see layers colour thrue it :)))
This what I need is totally opposite
I need letters stay
:)))
Oh gosh... What moms do for their kids :)))
If you can help me with this one will be great
Tonight will try your suggestion with pen tool
Thanks, have good day

[caligula]

One way to do it that might be easier than using the pen tool is after the photo with the letters is scanned and on its own separate layer is to make a threshold adjustment layer. Move the slider on the threshold adjustment layer until only your son's handwritten text is visible. Then on the layer with the handwriting select the background with the magic wand tool. Invert the selection. Discard the threshold layer and paste the text onto a new layer.

[Old Geezer]

Welcome amk,

As Nemesis says I think we will need a sample. If you don't want to display it here then you could email it to one of us here and let us have a look.

[Peterm1]

There is a much easier way to achieve this. I know as I have created a signature stamp for my photos using some custom fonts I imported onto my computer. In my case I typed the text I wanted, using the font I wanted to use, at the size I wanted and then having made sure it was in JPG format initially, I then made a selection of the background of the page using the color selection tool ( I was actually using Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and its name is different from the PS one but the function is the same - I just can't bring to mind the PS tools name but I am sure you know what I mean.) That meant the background was selected. So then I inverted the selection so that the text itself was selected. Once this was done, the text without its background could then be saved as a PSD file as a new image (with, of course a transparent background) and after-wards could be used however I wished to use it. Job done! Very simple really. I am sure you can do the same. I actually typed the text in Word format and used a screen grab utility to covert the text to a JPG image for import into my image editor but on reflection I could have just as easily typed it directly into the image editor. If you have the letters as JPGs already then cutting them out using the above process is even simpler.

[NEMESIS]

Also an idea ---> http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

Upload that image with that font and at this site they have engine that can recognize which font is used. If you have that font then it is a lot easier to make that text legible, readable, etc...