I need to make some simple ink drawings usable for putting on tee-shirts. As in, they need to be solid black (with the color being able to be easily swapped) and with crisp/clear edges that don't have any blur. Basically I'm looking to make a raster image work a little like a vector image (crisp edges and easy to swap the colors). The raster images I'm using are scanned in at a high resolution (600dpi).
I'm used to making tee shirt designs using Illustrator, but as of right now I only have access to Photoshop.
All of my designs are simple one-color designs, and are meant to be white against a black background. I would also like the option to make them black against a white background, which is why I would like to make the drawings easily color-swappable. Once again, I'm used to doing all of this in vector, so the switch to Photoshop has been kind of an adjustment for me 😅
Here is an example of one of the scanned drawings that I am trying to do this with:
Other than using Contrast/Levels to make the drawing as black as I can and knocking out the white background using Select Color Range, what else can I do? I've tried Bitmapping the drawing at a 50% threshhold but that just gives it slightly jagged edges. And tracing vector paths over this with the Pen tool would take FOREVER, lol. Is there another process that I am overlooking?
I am using Photoshop 2021 on MacOS Mojave. Thanks! 🙂
1 Correct answer
Everything is already explained. When you blur it will mix black and white and create transition area something like gradient from black to white. Gradient area can be manipulated using Levels, for example. Grey pixels can be manipulated to "convert" them to black or white using three sliders in Levels dialogue.
To learn more about process and how thing works I will sugest following:
- Alt + click on layer mask to show mask on screen.
- Zoom in closer to white part(s)
- Use Gaussian blur to blur e
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Replies
Thank you! Since I wanted the entire image to be flattened, the layer mask wasn't necessary because that would've only sharpened the edges. All I had to do was apply a Gaussian Blur to the entire flattened image and then adjust the levels to get the flat and crisp look that I was going for. Then it was easy to remove the background, change colors, etc. using the selection tools and layer effects 👍
Hi Kitsume,
I thought you might like to see the steps that bojan was talking about. I took a screen shot of your image and deleted the gray and white checker board to show you these steps. The numbers might be different if you have a higher resolution.
1. Isolate your artwork by using a layer mask.
2. Apply a Gaussian Blur, see the dialog box for amount.
3. Use levels and bring in the black and white sliders to the middle (see image). You can move the sliders to the right or left to either make it darker or open up the whites a little more.
Michelle
I think the problem is that they're scanned drawings.Why not draw the art directly into Photoshop using a tablet? That way, you get smooth crisp lines on a separate layer. Part of what caused your artifacts/jaggy lines was the process of removing the background.
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