Question for Photoshop Wizards. (Not Rocket Related)

[JAL3]

I have a GIF image in two colors. In fact, the one I want to work with is a larger version of my avatar.

I would like to do several things with this image to make a few variations. Each seems simple conceptually but I cannot find how to do it. Google just gives me very complex answers that a) are not worth the effort and b) are designed to really do something else anyway.

1. First variation. make the white transparent.

2. Second variation: leave the white alone but make every black pixel a different color. (without zooming to see individual pixels and changing them one at a time.

3. Third and up: all variations of the first two like leave the white alone and make the black transparent, change the black to red and the white to purple (or whatevr).


To me the idea of em masse swapping out one color for another seems simple but I have not been able to do it for all these years execept by brute force (zoom and repaint pixel by pixel)



FWIW, I have photoshop CS5.5 and Photoshop 6

 

[Rex R]

do you mean something like this? evidently widnows only recognizes icons (*.ico(which is a .bmp file w/ added info)) as having transparent bits. mass color swapping, I think can be done with a fill tool(or at least my ancient neopaint proggy hides it there).
Rex

View attachment avatar10_1.zip

 

[CarVac]

I have a GIF image in two colors. In fact, the one I want to work with is a larger version of my avatar.

I would like to do several things with this image to make a few variations. Each seems simple conceptually but I cannot find how to do it. Google just gives me very complex answers that a) are not worth the effort and b) are designed to really do something else anyway.

1. First variation. make the white transparent.

2. Second variation: leave the white alone but make every black pixel a different color. (without zooming to see individual pixels and changing them one at a time.

3. Third and up: all variations of the first two like leave the white alone and make the black transparent, change the black to red and the white to purple (or whatevr).


To me the idea of em masse swapping out one color for another seems simple but I have not been able to do it for all these years execept by brute force (zoom and repaint pixel by pixel)



FWIW, I have photoshop CS5.5 and Photoshop 6

You can do it with GIMP.

You'll have to export it as a PNG though, since GIF's don't allow transparency.

 

[JAL3]

do you mean something like this? evidently widnows only recognizes icons (*.ico(which is a .bmp file w/ added info)) as having transparent bits. mass color swapping, I think can be done with a fill tool(or at least my ancient neopaint proggy hides it there).
Rex

It took me a while to figure this out. I know bmp is a graphic format and I know (broadly) what an icon is. The rest is gobeldygook to me. When I opened the zip, I see that it does have the transparency I sought in the first part of my question. That's good. Can it be done without shrinking? Can it be done with a GIF?

 

[JAL3]

You can do it with GIMP.

You'll have to export it as a PNG though, since GIF's don't allow transparency.

Sorry. The only gimp I know is the one from Pulp Fiction and I don't think he's too tied up to do the work.

I don't object to a PNG.

It seems like such a simple thing to do: everywhere there is X, replace it with Y.

 

[Rex R]

can it be done with a gif...technically yes, in theory. one used to be able to, then they changed the .gif format, so in practice the short answer is, no. google 'gimp image software'. or look for 'transparent color' in your photoshop help. what little I know came from editing games, in the games I'm familiar with, they would set aside a particular color that would be transparent(in general pure black) anything black would not show up in game( took me a bit to remember that tires are really dark gray not black...).
Rex
I used your avatar pic as an example that's what size the forum uses, have to see what I can turn up.

 

[CarVac]

Sorry. The only gimp I know is the one from Pulp Fiction and I don't think he's too tied up to do the work.

I don't object to a PNG.

It seems like such a simple thing to do: everywhere there is X, replace it with Y.

https://www.gimp.org/

"Select by colors"

and then fill selection with color.

 

[JAL3]

https://www.gimp.org/

"Select by colors"

and then fill selection with color.

Thanks. I tried that and it almost worked. When I zoom in, though, there are still some small black pieces. Its like I have 3 colors now instead of 2. Can you walk me through a bit more?

 

[CarVac]

Thanks. I tried that and it almost worked. When I zoom in, though, there are still some small black pieces. Its like I have 3 colors now instead of 2. Can you walk me through a bit more?

That means that you have more the two colors you said you had at the start, which complicates things. PM me your email address and when I respond could you send me the original file? It might end up not being very doable.

 

[foamy]

Import the GIF into P'Shop. Duplicate the layer. Turn off or get rid of the "background" layer (in the layers panel) Create a blank white layer underneath of your artwork layer. Just below the layers tab there's a little box that says "normal." Click and hold it, a drop down menu will appear. Select "multiply." If you save your art as a .tif or a .png, the white will stay transparent (but you must turn off the white layer when you save it). If you change the layer beneath it's color, what ever is white will be that color and what ever is another color will saturate it. Play around with the various modes in the drop down panel— they all give markedly different results, depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

There are other ways to go about it—this is just simple, down and dirty.

 

[foamy]

The first thing is check your image mode. Use the "Image" drop down, >mode. Make it RGB to be able to use all of your filters and get some color.

The only way I know to change each pixels color is a random filter called "noise" in the filters drop down. You'll have to select all the white (use the magic wand with no tolerance), then invert it (command i), select Noise from the filter menu and "add noise" to your heart's content. To mess with the color, select the Image drop down, then Adjustments, then Hue/Saturation. Click the "colorize" box if the image is monotone to get some color, use the "saturation" slider. Play around.

Or, skip the noise:

You'll have to select all the white (use the magic wand with no tolerance), then invert it (command i), and proceed to mess with the color, select the Image drop down, then Adjustments, then Hue/Saturation. Click the "colorize" box if the image is monotone to get some color, use the "saturation" slider. Play around.

 

[foamy]

With the two posts above, you should have enough to keep you occupied and acheive what you want with your third aim.

Again, play around.

You've got CS.5 PhotoShop. There's no point in messing with Gimp at all.

There are also lots of good P'Shop tutorials on the interwebs. Google whatever it is you want to do (specify PhotoShop) and have a look.

 

[CarVac]

All done.

It was a bit troublesome because it was an indexed GIF, so I had to copy-paste the contents into another image in order to manipulate it properly.

Then there was the fact that it was grayscale, not actually black and white. I added some noise and thresholded it to make it pure black and white.

 

[Reinhard]

This appears to be the original artwork, which should be less cumbersome to work with:
https://bryanartist.deviantart.com/art/The-Hunchback-106697040

A quick test of this approach worked pretty well with the above image:
https://brainsongimp.blogspot.co.at/2008/03/black-and-white-jpg-to-transparent-png.html

Reinhard