PS7: How to remove color but leave outlines intact?

Hi everyone! I've come to this forum before with my Photoshop questions and had great success with the feedback, so hopefully you will be able to help me out with my newest silly dillema.

I'm working on a project with simple black lines (curves and geometric shapes) and bold reds, but I'd like to be able to remove the color values so the image is a simple black-and-white outline (think coloring book style ~ I'd like a template to use with other colors down the road). But... having mediocre skills with the program, I'm not sure how to do it. I've tried using the paint bucket features, just filling in the colored areas with white, but I find that depletes the black outlines or makes them jagged -- or worse, they find breaks and the color leaks out. I've tried using the magic wand to select only the colored area, then filling it with white to avoid ruining the outline, but then there is a oh-so-faint (but bothersome to me) ring of red around the black outline. So, I'm thinking, this is such a versatile program that there's got to be a way to manipulate the image to remove the red without compromising the quality of the lines... Any ideas?

I've attached a little snippet of a bit of the image I'm working with so you can get an idea of the "mechanics" (for lack of a better term) of the picture. Also FYI: The outline thicknesses vary between 3 and 6 pixels with thicker "curls" at the end (I'd guess the thickest would be 12-15 pixels wide) and are all done with the pen tool.

Probably the easiest way would be to use the "Colour range" selection option under the "Selection" Menu. Use the "additive" eyedropper (the one with the plus sign next to it) tool to select all the red bits (and whatever other colours you want to get rid of). When you are happy, click OK then go to the selection menu and choose "Invert" (command+I/control+I).
Then go to Edit>Copy, the Edit>Paste. This will create a new layer with just the black lines on it (and whatever else you didn't select using the colour range option).
You can the delete the original coloured layer to be left with a black outline.

Hope this helps

Yes! That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much, djflorian!

Looks like the image was done in a vector program (?)...if so removing the colors through that source would leave you with a much sharper result.

Hmmm, yeah, the quality is a bit lower than I would like... I'm picky -- I want the edges to maintain the full quality. It wasn't made in a vector program (at least to my knowledge ~ it was done in good ol Photoshop 7... I don't know any fancy terminology, I'm a relatively new user, lol)... It's in .psd format right now. Any ideas on how to work with that? I've attached a bigger snippet of the picture to give you a clearer idea, if that would help at all.

Thanks!

What are the layers in the .psd file like? Is there more than one?

There's only one layer; I was fiddling around and relearning the pen tool, so I merged the layers so as to keep everything in place... things would be so much easier if I hadn't done that, lol. Dangit.

hm. yes, quite easier. If you've still got it open, you could revert (File, Revert) to the original, though im guessing you've since closed it.

So i'd say a level adjustment on the one layer youve got, then select just the black area, and mask the rest out. Stick a white background behind it, and we'll see where we are then.

I've never done a level adjustment before (uh oh, my newbie status is showing)... care to humor me? lol... I know where the level feature is, I'm just not sure how to use it. Or do masking. I'm using Photoshop as an advanced version of Microsoft Paint right now (with the exception of the pen tool, which I seem to have down pretty well), so bear with me. lol Thanks for your help!

ok.

- Youve got the one layer, make sure its not locked.
- Image>Adj>Levels, and move the black arrow to about 43, and the white to 216 or so. This helps the color seperation for the next step.
- Select>Color Range, and click on the black area on the canvas, not the poopup window. It will show a preview of the selection in the window. Scoot the fuzziness to 200 to get all the near-black areas too. Hit ok.
- The selection youre left with is of course the blackyness. Hit "Add Layer Mask" at the bottom of the layers panel (half and half circle) or Layer>Add Layer Mask>Reveal Selection. Beautiful!
- now add a white background under the one layer you have, and that should do it.

let me know.

Hi again! Well, we are definitely closer! I've attached yet another snippet to show you what I ended up with... maybe I did something wrong? It's much less saturated and closer to having the reds removed, but it's not white and I'm confused... The white background didn't seem to do much, either. Hmmm... I'm pretty sure I followed your directions correctly... but I'm also running on 3 hours of sleep so I could very well be wrong. lol Check out the new snippet and let me know what you think.

I'm sure you're getting tired of me thanking you... but you can deal with it. Thanks again.

Wow, so many solutions but one simple answer, with a little bit of my magic wand and a kick out from my eraser plus the adjustments of my curve when i kicked it, i think i may have found what you are looking for, now I read the original post, and you said think like a color book.

I may have not completly understood the meaning of this post but I heard think like a color book so i made the image like a color book . If i am wrong I appologize and well kick me in the head! :P


So i have made your image like a color book there is no crapy red line, no snippity bad color, and that thing you would have called a tentical or whatever butterflys have is now rounded off and pretty. Here is my example attached.

Program ADOBE Photoshop CS
Magic wand = 10
Eraser 1 Pixel Hard
Curves, adjust till it suites you

To make the tentical (or whatever they are) pretty, you need to use the channels palet and a bit of Gaussian Blur (ok ALOT) and some level, with some curvage baby!

Thats about 2 minutes of work but with another 2 you could fix what i was to lazy to finish fixing, im sure you can still see where some of the errors are, if you cant, GET OUT OF GRAPHICS NOW! lmao

Now as far as I can tell this image was made in adobe photoshop 7, it was made on.....i forgot, and according to the signature he did use the pen tool to create the original vector graphics, which is then turned into pixel graphics on save!!!! Generally only if you rasterize or save for web.


OH YEAH!

GOLDEN RULE: Never EDIT anything without MAKING A COPY of the layers first, this saves you heartache later, this is specially reccomended to N00bs and Novice Photoshop Designers!