Newbie question about replacing colors and creating transparent background

R
Posted By
Ramon
May 4, 2009
Views
338
Replies
5
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Closed
I am trying to create the image of a signature with Photoshop CS2, but have found 2 problems.

(1) The original signature image is monochrome, and I am trying to use the "Replace Color" tool to make it look like blue ink, but can’t make the desired change. I have successfully used the "replace color" in the past.

(2) I would like the background to be transparent (I am using PNG) but have no clue on how to do that.

TIA,

-Ramon

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JJ
John J
May 4, 2009
Ramon F Herrera wrote:
I am trying to create the image of a signature with Photoshop CS2, but have found 2 problems.

(1) The original signature image is monochrome, and I am trying to use the "Replace Color" tool to make it look like blue ink, but can’t make the desired change. I have successfully used the "replace color" in the past.

(2) I would like the background to be transparent (I am using PNG) but have no clue on how to do that.

Go to the Help menu.
Paste the line below into the search window:
Change pixels to transparent with the Background Eraser tool

Then for the color – go to Image -> Adjustments -> Hue and Saturation Click the little box [ ] Colorize
Slide the Saturation to the right
Slide Hue until you get the color you want

Save as either GIF or PNG
R
Ramon
May 4, 2009
On May 4, 8:38 am, John J wrote:
Ramon F Herrera wrote:
I am trying to create the image of a signature with Photoshop CS2, but have found 2 problems.

(1) The original signature image is monochrome, and I am trying to use the "Replace Color" tool to make it look like blue ink, but can’t make the desired change. I have successfully used the "replace color" in the past.

(2) I would like the background to be transparent (I am using PNG) but have no clue on how to do that.

Go to the Help menu.
Paste the line below into the search window:
Change pixels to transparent with the Background Eraser tool
Then for the color – go to Image -> Adjustments -> Hue and Saturation Click the little box [ ] Colorize
Slide the Saturation to the right
Slide Hue until you get the color you want

Save as either GIF or PNG

Thanks a lot. It worked like a charm.

With such good results, I am getting more ambitious. Some of the signatures have traces (not sure whether in the original paper, or as a result of the digital manipulations) which are too thin.

How can I make the signature traces thicker?

TIA,

-Ramon
JS
John Stafford
May 4, 2009
On 5/4/09 11:13 AM, in article
, "Ramon F
Herrera" wrote:

Thanks a lot. It worked like a charm.

With such good results, I am getting more ambitious. Some of the signatures have traces (not sure whether in the original paper, or as a result of the digital manipulations) which are too thin.
How can I make the signature traces thicker?

You can try copying the layer to another layer (control j), then set the mode of the second layer to Multiply.
MR
Mike Russell
May 5, 2009
On Mon, 4 May 2009 01:12:31 -0700 (PDT), Ramon F Herrera wrote:

(1) The original signature image is monochrome, and I am trying to use the "Replace Color" tool to make it look like blue ink, but can’t make the desired change. I have successfully used the "replace color" in the past.

Use Image>Adjust>Hue/Sat, click on the Colorize button, and adjust the Hue and Lightness sliders to get the color you want. Do this step after taking care of transparency as explained below.

(2) I would like the background to be transparent (I am using PNG) but have no clue on how to do that.

0) Alt double-click on the background layer in the layer palette to make it a normal layer
1) use Layer>Mask>Reveal All to create a layer mask.
2) Copy your original signature to the clipboard (ctrl-A, ctrl-C)
3) alt click on the layer mask in the layer palette, and paste the signature to the layer mask.
4) invert the layer mask (ctrl-I) and you’re set.

BTW – you can get a fairly good result by clicking on the signature background with the magic wand tool, then pressing the delete key. The quality will not be as good as what you will get with the above procedure. —
Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com
G
garypoyssick
May 8, 2009
On May 4, 9:56 pm, Mike Russell wrote:
On Mon, 4 May 2009 01:12:31 -0700 (PDT), Ramon F Herrera wrote:
(1) The original signature image is monochrome, and I am trying to use the "Replace Color" tool to make it look like blue ink, but can’t make the desired change. I have successfully used the "replace color" in the past.

Use Image>Adjust>Hue/Sat, click on the Colorize button, and adjust the Hue and Lightness sliders to get the color you want.  Do this step after taking care of transparency as explained below.

(2) I would like the background to be transparent (I am using PNG) but have no clue on how to do that.

0) Alt double-click on the background layer in the layer palette to make it a normal layer
1) use Layer>Mask>Reveal All to create a layer mask.  
2) Copy your original signature to the clipboard (ctrl-A, ctrl-C)
3) alt click on the layer mask in the layer palette, and paste the signature to the layer mask.
4) invert the layer mask (ctrl-I) and you’re set.

BTW – you can get a fairly good result by clicking on the signature background with the magic wand tool, then pressing the delete key.  The quality will not be as good as what you will get with the above procedure.. —
Mike Russell -http://www.curvemeister.com

Excellent advice. Couldn’t have said it better myself. I’m not kidding or being a wiseguy, either. We write books about Adobe apps and that "Paste in the Help" line was just wonderful. I would never have thought about it — relying instead of talking too much 😉

gary in florida

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