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pmccb1002
Inspiring
March 4, 2019
Answered

Trying to invert the color of a Tiff and only getting outlines

  • March 4, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 2982 views

Hi there,

I was given a fairly simple tiff logo file. It's black with a transparent background. I'd like it to be white with a transparent background. I'm not really sure how to do this. Let me also preface that I have Illustrator and Photoshop CS6.

I tried inverting the colors in Photoshop and the black became kind of grey, but not white. I was also given a white jpeg version of the file, but both the image and the background were white, so the background and magic eraser tools didn't get me very far. 

So I moved on to Illustrator. I was able to outline the image using Image Trace, but the best I seemed to do was get a white outline. I'm not sure what kind of paths Image Trace technically creates, but I tried joining paths, uniting shapes, grouping, and the shape builder tool to no avail.

Does anybody have any ideas? I have a feeling there's probably a simple explanation and I'm just not familiar enough with either platform to know the answer.

Here's what the original file looks like (as a jpeg) and here's a link to it if anyone is interested: Hightail

Here's what I've gotten to using Image Trace (jpeg below) and as an ai file: Hightail

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Monika Gause

When tracing it, check the option "Ignore white"

After tracing, expand it. There's a button for that in the properties panel.

Then select all the black shapes and fill them with white instead.

2 replies

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
March 4, 2019

When tracing it, check the option "Ignore white"

After tracing, expand it. There's a button for that in the properties panel.

Then select all the black shapes and fill them with white instead.

Michael Bullo
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 4, 2019

Open your TIFF in Photoshop.

Press the D key to set your default colours to black and white.

Press the X key to make white your foreground colour.

Select the only layer in the Layers panel.

Fill the pixels with the foreground colour while ignoring the transparent ones...

- On a Mac: Option + Shift + Delete

- On Windows: Alt + Shift + Backspace

I tested this on your file and it works.

pmccb1002
pmccb1002Author
Inspiring
March 7, 2019

Thanks guys. This was really helpful. I tried the Illustrator version, and got part of the way there, but the whole background was white, so I jumped over to Photoshop and tried that and it worked!

Much appreciated!

Michael Bullo
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 7, 2019

Good to hear. Happy to help.