Photoshop CS: Really simple question on changing colours

JB
Posted By
James_Benstead
Dec 3, 2006
Views
371
Replies
12
Status
Closed
Hi guys,

I was watching a friend of mine design a book cover for me and he did something I’d like to be able to do in CS, but I can’t work out how. Basically, part of the book cover is a layer which holds a logo, a very simple one-tone design (literally, the thing’s just black) on a white background. My friend did something that enabled him to change the foreground and background to whatever colours he wanted. I’ve been playing with PSCS for a good half hour but can’t work out how he did it. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

–Jim
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Y
YrbkMgr
Dec 3, 2006
I’m having a hard time imagining what you’re describing. Are you talking about changing the color from the color picker, or actually applying them?

Some things he MAY have done might include adding an adjustment layer, say, solid color, and then vary the color of that layer… make the background layer active (underneath your text) and then at the bottom of the layers palette, click the half white half black circle and choose solid color. Is that what you’re talking about?
JB
James_Benstead
Dec 3, 2006
Sorry, I’m not sure I made myself clear. I’ll start from scratch.

I’m designing a book cover. Part of the book cover is a layer which holds the publisher’s logo: the logo is very simple, a black design on a white background. What I want to be able to do is to change the logo so that rather than black on white, it could be any colour I wanted: red on green, blue on yellow, white on black, black on transparent, etc etc etc. I can’t change the Background layer because this is the background to the whole bookcover, not just the logo.

Is this a bit clearer?
DR
Donald_Reese
Dec 3, 2006
I am not sure if there is some quick tool that will switch black and white to any color,but if you used the paint bucket to make your logo another regular color first,you could very easily use the hue/saturation and leave it on master,changing the hue to whatever color you desire or if its two colors,go to that specific color and alter the hue for that one only. black and white do not change using hue/sat like a normal color does and i wonder if your friend was showing you this using black and white or other colors?
P
Phosphor
Dec 3, 2006
I dunno…the Paint Bucket always seems a little clunky to me, and I rarely use it. I’d rather have better control, and after-the-fact editability.

Try this, Jim.

Select the "Logo" Layer.

Choose colors for both Foreground and Background colors you want to use.

Create a Gradient Map adjustment layer. In the dialogue that comes up, select the Foreground—>Background gradient swatch.

The foreground color you chose earlier will map to the formnerly black color of the logo; the background color will map to the white. Reverse the color mapping if you need to by clicking that button in the dialogue..

Click OK.

"CTRL + G" (Layer—>Group with Previous) will group the adjustment layer with the Logo layer so the Gradient Map will affect just that layer.
Y
YrbkMgr
Dec 3, 2006
James,

A basic way, other than Phos’ method, is to create an adjustment layer like I mentioned, only put it above the text layer and then change the blending mode.

Most folk recommend that logos be vector objects as they are the most flexible. So if your logo is just text, presumably it is already vector. then, all you have to do is target the text layer, then select the Text tool, and change the color in the options bar.

If it’s not vector, it may be worth making vector, via various methods.

Bear in mind that your clarification didn’t clarify much and more importantly, there are at least three ways to do anything in photoshop.
P
Phosphor
Dec 3, 2006
The way I interpreted "The Clarification™®" (:)) is that—if the logo is "black design on a white background"—it must be from a format that doesn’t support transparency. That is, the logo file (I assume it exists as its own separate image document) being used is a flattened file and the pixel dimensions of that file define the size of the "white background" Jim is referring to.

Certainly the best course of action would be to try to acquire the original version of the logo, which—if the creator was smart—would have been built in a vector format to begin with, and would then be available as a standalone graphic with no background at all.

Further, Jim seems to say that he wants to keep the format of "black design on a white background" for the layer which contains the logo. If this is the case, then I can’t think of a simpler or more versatile way to change both of the colors than to use a Gradient Map A.L.
Y
YrbkMgr
Dec 3, 2006
<http://milbut.org/smilies/dontknow.gif>

I say we assume some more.
P
Phosphor
Dec 3, 2006
Tony…a little GIF(t) for you:

XD
JB
James_Benstead
Dec 4, 2006
Hi guys:

Thanks for all your help! The gradient map did the trick perfectly. I must admit I get lost very quickly with Photoshop and couldn’t make head nor tail of your answers once they got beyond "click here, then click here, then click here" and onto vectors and other things. As a little aside the friend of mine who was designing the book cover was in hysterics when he was watching me use Photoshop; I teach IT to people with disabilities and have helped out my mate with all sorts of techy things in the past, and he was very happy for the tables to be turned…

The logo, FYI, was provided to me in a PDF which I guess had come from Photoshop originally. I had then turned this into a jpeg which I had copied into the book cover and was trying to change the colour of. I’d attach a copy of the jpeg if I knew how to 🙂

–Jim
Y
YrbkMgr
Dec 4, 2006
Tony…a little GIF(t) for you:

How friggin perfect Phos. Thanks.
P
Phosphor
Dec 4, 2006
Jim…

Where’d you get the PDF? From the person who origianlly created the logo? If so, can you ask them if they have an editable vector version of it? JPEG really isn’t the best file format to work with for something like this. Placing the PDF may be a better choice, but it depends on the nature of the PDF.

"I’d attach a copy of the jpeg if I knew how to"

Go to <http://www.pixentral.com>

Click on the "Browse…" button.

Navigate to the JPEG logo on your hard drive.

Choose it, and it’ll upload. When the directory path appears in the text field, click on the "Send" link.

Your image will soon appear. Scroll down to the bottom and copy ALL of the code in the field named "HTML". COMPLETELY IGNORE anything in the "Forum:" field.

Paste that text in a reply here.

The text will look similar to this:<a href=" http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1bVNDSPcTEuMplT2Fn DkWVYLKYhdA"/><img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src=" http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1bVNDSPcTEuMplT2FnDkWVYLKYhd A_thumb.jpg" border="0"/></a>…When you post the message, a clickable thumbnail will appear, like so:
< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1bVNDSPcTEuMplT2Fn DkWVYLKYhdA>
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Dec 4, 2006
Nice self-portrait. I had no idea….

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