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QUESTION: I have a question about the Good Times Calendar template. I have been successful with the background, photos, and the word January on this first calendar layout, but for the grid, photo frames, days of the week, etc., I can't seem to either colorize them or overlay a paper and merge down. What am I doing wrong? Colorizing with the Eyedropper Tool worked for January. I'm so frustrated, and now I have to go to work!
ANSWER: I looked at your calendar, and it looks really cute! Sorry you are getting frustrated with the templates. What software program are you using? I don't have these calendars, so I'm not able to give an exact solution. If it was me, I'd try the following technique:
Use the Magic Wand Tool to select the grid lines and numbers. (You might need to play with the Tolerance setting in order to pull just the color of the grid/numbers.)
Once all of the grid lines and date numbers have the "marching ants" around them, try adjusting the Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U in Photoshop Elements). By playing with the sliders, you can make the grids lighter, darker, or different colors.
I wish I had my PSE program on my office computer so I could give you better directions. I'm trying to do this by memory. I hope someone can come along and give better directions or other suggestions for coloring the templates.
ANSWER: Did you have the correct layer active when coloring? Being on the wrong layer is something that many of us have done. The lines to the grids are very small and easy to miss with the Paint Bucket Tool, so expand the size of your layout (Ctrl+ in PSE) until the line is easily seen and the paint should pour onto the lines. If that doesn't work, then with your layout still large and the correct layer active, select the lines with the Magic Wand Tool, then color them with your Paint Bucket Tool or paper layer that you have added. If you have added a paper layer above your grid to color the lines, you've likely hidden it to see the lines, so unhide it, be sure that it is active, then clip it to the lines (Ctrl+G in PSE). Or Hue/Saturation is another way of coloring and is a lot of fun to use. I hope this is helpful. If not, please mention the program that you are using and perhaps the next reader will see your question in a different way or have a different way of doing things.
ANSWER: Colorizing a solid black color using the Hue/Sat menu requires that you move the Lightness and Saturation sliders to the right a bit before you try moving the Hue slider. Otherwise, it will seem like the Hue isn't changing (because it's too dark and saturated to see the changes).
ORIGINAL POSTER'S RESPONSE: I just typed out a long reply, then lost it - ugh! The first answers given are helpful tips; I did have the correct layer active (I have done that before - had the wrong layer active!). I did briefly try using the Paint Bucket Tool instead of clicking Hue/Saturation> Colorize, but those grid lines are so stinking tiny, I kept painting the square instead of the line. It did not even occur to me to enlarge my layout. Hopefully that answers my question as to why I was able to use the Eyedropper Tool and just click "Colorize" in Hue/Saturation for January, but it didn't seem to be working for some of the other layers. I will try sliding the Lightness and Saturation to the right. But now I have to get through a whole day of work before I can try again!
ANSWER: You're welcome! Hopefully, one or two of the suggestions will be helpful, and if not, you can always repost. I used to have so much trouble working with lines and tiny bits until I realized that I don't have to; all I had to do was enlarge the layout, and I could work with it much better. I'm looking forward to seeing your completed calendar - it looks so cool already - so please post here or start a new post when you have it done, so we can take a look at it.
ANSWER: You did a great job with your calendar page - it's so cute! Love it and can't wait to see the rest of the calendar. To answer your question, my favorite method of recoloring things like grids, lines and such is this one:
"To recolor the object you need to lock the transparent pixels by pressing the square icon at the top of your Layers Palette. The lock icon will appear. Set the foreground color and go to Edit> Fill> Foreground Color."
ANSWER: Thank you! I have to laugh that the "fixes" for my frustration are usually so simple. That is a new method of recoloring for me. Except for this snag, I think making my calendars for this year will be very quick and easy.
QUESTION: Is there a way to use the Eyedropper Tool from Photoshop CS and grab a color from a webpage? I want to match/use a color that I see on a website, but when I click the Eyedropper Tool then go to the website, it doesn't work. Is this possible and how do I do it?
ANSWER: I know it's possible, but I don't do it often enough so it always takes me a few minutes to remember how I do it each time. To get it to work, I shrink my CS3 program so I can see both CS3 and the web page on my screen. After selecting the color selection Eyedropper Tool, hold down your left mouse button while you move your cursor over to the color you want to pick. Once you're on the preferred color, let go of the mouse button. That should work for you. If not, maybe someone else can give us some other tips on how to do this.
ANSWER: I'm not sure if this will work for you or not, but I would try to "print screen" the webpage which has your chosen color, then open it in your CS program and use the Eyedropper Tool. Maybe someone else has a better way of doing it?
ANSWER: Here are the directions I found, although I tried it, and it doesn't work for me. If anyone gets it to work, help me out, too - pretty please?
- Open a document in Photoshop or Elements.
- Minimize (I think they really meant Restore Down) Photoshop or Elements so that you can see both the software window and the website window.
- Get the Eyedropper Tool by pressing the letter I on your keyboard.
- Change the Sample size in the Options bar to 3x3 or 5x5.
- If you move the Eyedropper Tool outside of the software now, it turns into a cursor, but if you click on your document and then hold the Shift key, you can drag the Eyedropper Tool outside of the software to pick up any color.
- You'll see the Foreground color chip change as you move over the colors on the web. When the Foreground color changes to the color you'd like to use, move the cursor over to the Swatches panel and click in a blank area to "deposit" the color there.
- Repeat the process to pick up the rest of the colors you'd like to use.
ANSWER: I have a tutorial for this in the Scrap Girls University here: http://www.scrapgirls.com/tutorial_color_picking_from_anywhere.htm
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