How to seperate writing from backgrround image

I have a scanned image of an old letter. I want to know if I can lift, seperate, the writing layer from the background? If so, how would I go about doing this.

That, to my limited knowledge isn't do-able...That is just the writing. What you can do is to marquee the text and lift it out, but then you'll also get whatever background lies benieth the text and that is not what you're after here, is it ? What is it you really want to have in the end, the text or the letter background ? If it is the text I think you're in deep "scheize", but then again what do I know
Is it the letter background, then we can do something as you might suspect already....

I wanted to seperate the text (writing), particularly the signatures, so that I can paste into into a genealogy book I am working on. But if I can't do this I would be interested in seperating the background. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Can you post an example? It will be easier if the text is a solid colour, otherwise it could involve complex selections.

You can supposedly extract it from the background by selecting it as Patteman said, but, from the result, you can also extract the words itself. The best way is to start by scanning it in at a large resolution so it'll look better when you print it out.

I believe it is ALT+CTRL+1 to select all the whites from the image, given that the background color is also white, and inverse the selection by CTRL+SHIFT+I. Then just right click the layer, select Layer via Copy.

You should now have the signature/text seperate from the base layer and there you have it. If the text is too faint, CTRL+Click that layer and fill it with black so it has more 'volume' so to say.

Is there a web site with a walk through example of how to use Alt+Ctrl+1 and Ctrl+Shif+I? Oh, and how does one attach an image to a post in this forum?

First off, you can't upload and post directly from the forums, you need to upload the image to your own webhost and then post a link to it in your reply.

About the CTRL+ALT+1 bit, there wouldn't be any tutorials regarding on when to use it, or if there were, it would be helpless. To use it or not, it all depends on how the artist, so to say, plans on reaching his or her goal. At one time someone will use CTRL+ALT+1, yet, someone else might do it another way. It's a matter of personal preference. You have to decide when to use it.

you could also try saving the file as a .gif with transparency.

if the background is a single color that can be easily selected, the color can be made transparent. Or, if the b/g is a little complex and more than one color, various colors can be combined in one channel which can be designated as transparent.

you could then bring this in as a a layer over any background.

Use the magic eraser tool to completely remove the white background from the image

This is what I do in cases like that.

Use the polygonal marquee tool (not the lasso) to get a more accurate selection. Using this tool, this CAN be done more easily (at least for me) than trying to very carefully trace (even with a light pen) with the lasso tool. The cool thing about the polygonal tool is that every time you need to change an angle, simply click the mouse. On some rounded corners, you'll have to click the mouse quite a bit to get a good selection. This is not that big of a deal given the great selection you end up with.

Once I have my selection using that method, I do any one (or a combination) of the following to smooth things out.
1) Apply a very light stroke
2)Apply a very light outer glow
3) Apply a slight drop shadow.

I did some graphics for a college website for one of the faculty and used the same method for the college text logo. While it isn't the curvy, signatures you have to lift off the background (my method will still work great for that), it was extracted using the above method. I had a folder with the college logo on the front. I scanned it and imported it into the PS7 and used the method above. Take a look at it here: http://home.twcny.rr.com/mysticalride/logo.gif
The "Oswego" text is what I selected. Hope this helps...