From photography to drawing: a segmentation technique for mural paintings

In this article the authors present a method for obtaining a line-art representation of a mural painting using colour photography. First, the information concerning colour components was separated and then the contours of graphic representations were extracted. The result is an exact copy of the original and this level of precision makes it an important solution to the problem of registering and recording mural paintings. This method has been shown to be a useful solution for the documentation of the state of conservation of paintings, as well as a means for keeping track of restoration work; furthermore, it provides a fundamental method for analysing paint compositions. The approach was developed bearing in mind the possibility of use by non-specialist computer users: no programming knowledge is assumed and the use of shareware software was always preferred