Question about taking a jagged, digital image and sharpening the lines with Photoshop?

Question

I'm curious how I can take a low-res image with jagged, digital lines and using Photoshop make the edge lines smooth, sharp and without the zig-zag effect. I've taken a screenshot from Google sketchup, and what I'd like to do is use screenshots from this program, bring these into Photoshop, increase the resolution, change this to pure black and white, and somehow sharpen the zig-zag line quality. Here's the original image.

http://www.geocities.com/robsartgallery/house.jpg

Any suggestions on how to use Photoshop to make the lines sharp and without zig-zag quality?

I've been experimenting and I have some ideas, but I'd like to hear any other suggestions people might have.

Thanks!

Answer 1

To fix something like the example you show, it would be much easier to, simply, bump the resolution, redraw the lines on a new layer, and do some simple fills.

Any complicated rigamarole with adding noise, sharpening, smoothing edges and other filter applications would, entirely, change the nature of the illustration.

I ALWAYS seek the easiest solution to any design problem. A few minutes of though may save me hours at the monitor.

Answer 2

The only thing I can think of to fix the zig-zag lines is to increase the resolution, and then go over them again with the Photoshop "line" tool. At a higher resolution they'll be smoother, and you can just completely cover the old ones.