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Thomas22842972ml5u
Known Participant
March 10, 2022
Question

Changing Color of Individual graphics Within a PDF

  • March 10, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 5958 views

Hello!

 

I believe that what I want to do is very simple, but I don't know where to begin.

 

I have a single-page PDF of a musical score, and all I want to do is change the noteheads to different colors. The PDF is originally in black and white, and I do not want to change the color of anything other than the noteheads.

 

Could you please tell me the steps?

 

I have attached the score. You will see that the noteheads are attached to other graphics, so I will have to isolate them from these.

 

Thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

Mario Arizmendi
Mario Arizmendi
Legend
March 10, 2022

Hi

Wiht this pdf, is not an easy task to do what you want because it is pixels and all the elements are conected by the black color, a vey time consuming task in photoshop or illustrator.

I am wondering why dont you use an apropiate software like MuseScore wich is free to recreate the musical score and then to color what you want? there is even software to create musical scores from a pdf out there

here is a link may be it can help you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSydurE7Ca0

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    Thomas22842972ml5uAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 10, 2022

    Thanks for the reply. I have such a program but  I'd like to work with the original document for this.

    Luke Jennings3
    Community Expert
    Luke Jennings3Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 14, 2022

    Another option is to save your original bw image as a tiff and place it into an InDesign page, where you can change the original black to any other color using the direct selection tool (this will recolor the entire image). To change the note head color, create a small ellipse using the ellipse tool and rotate it 13°, copy and paste it over every existing note head. Adding the ellipses on a separate layer will allow you to turn them on and off as a group.

    Edit, in order to make it easier to position each ellipse, turn off snap to grid and smart guides (View> Grids & Guides).

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    Thomas22842972ml5uAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 10, 2022

    The other thing I want to do is even simpler. I simply want to crop parts of the score (as if I were to use scissors to cut it in real life) and reassemble them on a page. I would like also to change the size of one or two of the cropped pieces.

     

    All of this I would do after having recolored the noteheads.

     

    Thanks!

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    Thomas22842972ml5uAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 10, 2022

    If someone could please provide the steps for this, either in Illustrator or Photoshop, I would be very appreciative.

     

    Thomas,

    Thomas

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 10, 2022

    The PDF contains an image. Photoshop would be the best app to do this.

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    Thomas22842972ml5uAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 10, 2022

    Really? Could you please tell me the steps to doing it in Photoshop?

     

    Thanks,

    Thomas

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    Thomas22842972ml5uAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 23, 2022

    >>Also, you're framing this as if I was complaining about the software,

    No, but you didn't seem to understand the limitations of the software. I believe you have a better understanding now, however. 


    Any time somebody asks whether a piece of software is capable of doing a particular thing implies that they don't yet know what the limitations of the software are with regard to that thing.

     

    Your initial comment was arrogant and unhelpful.

    T
    Thomas22842972ml5uAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 10, 2022

    Hello,

     

    Thank you for your reply. What do you mean by the proper image? I have attached the PDF which I am working with.

     

    Cheers,

    Thomas

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