How would I restore this 101 year old postcard?

Question

How do I approach making this legible? Is there a &ldquo;magical AI&rdquo; solution these days? I know the basics of image processing and filtering but I can barely read my own handwriting so I suspect I&rsquo;d need help from AI or someone even if I managed to isolate the signal.P.S. I hope I&rsquo;m not doxxing my great great grandfather or anything.https://ibb.co/4gC2X1fXhttps://ibb.co/7J1jf4dV

thataccount · Accepted Answer

Saturation curve in photo editing software possibly broken down by channels.

anenefan · Answer

I would suggest taking a photo under different lighting conditions, uv is a thought but being graphite based, IR would seem best to highlight the writing, but I could not say which would be better, same angle from beside the camera or from the side slightly above the plane of the bespoke postcard.Oh if I'm not mistaken, postage date suggests 111 years old.

k310 · Answer

I did some fiddling in GIMP, including edge detection filters. Not much progress.
The uneven illumination might call for working with regions separately. I didn't see an option to even it out. Bright areas seem blocked/saturated (in brightness, not color)
Unlike film, digital sensors seem better at letting you bring up detail in shadows and worse with highlights, which seem blocked.
"I don't use algorithms" (separately) unless they're incorporated in GIMP. More a photographer than anything else. Few words were readable.