Properly replacing a colour in a simple bitmap

**M4R5** · 21 June 2013, 06:24 PM

I have a low-res bitmap. It has a dark grey background with a plain white icon. The transitional pixels are various shades of grey.

I want to make the dark grey into a bright blue, leave the white white, and have the transitional pixels changed to maintain their respective "in between" values.

I do have Photoshop CS2 but I though Xara was more likely to be able to do this. Can anyone help?

Thanks

**gwpriester** · 21 June 2013, 06:29 PM

Xara Designer Pro X has a Color Select/Erase Tool that can do this, though to be honest, the results vary.

**M4R5** · 21 June 2013, 06:33 PM

Aw I don't seem to have that tool in PGD6. Any other ways? Seems like this must be something people do all the time.

Thanks

**Rik** · 21 June 2013, 06:36 PM

Can we see the bitmap?

**handrawn** · 21 June 2013, 06:37 PM

you can try mehdi eraser in the live effects

John made a quick tutorial here:

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...547#post328547

**M4R5** · 21 June 2013, 06:38 PM

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and I want the dark grey to be 0050ef

Cheers

**handrawn** · 21 June 2013, 06:43 PM

black and white is easy - to replace the white you give the bitmap a stained glass transparency put a colour rectangle behind select both and make a true colour bitmap copy

to replace black just invert the bitmap first

**handrawn** · 21 June 2013, 06:45 PM

ah - your edit makes it a bit more complicated

**M4R5** · 21 June 2013, 06:53 PM

Originally Posted by handrawn

ah - your edit makes it a bit more complicated

Thanks, that solution works well

As you say though.... how on Earth do I tell Xara to use a specific blue? I've never seen such a bad colour selection dialogue. I can't even specify RGB values :/

**handrawn** · 21 June 2013, 06:54 PM

ok

select the bitmap - click on white on the colour bar and select 'set contone dark colour' - then click on black on color line and select 'set contone light colour' - bitmap is now inverted

keep your bitmap selected and go to bitmap gallery and click on the original bitmap there and then the 'transp' button [transparency] - you will now have an object that is single colour and alpha - use the colour editor to set it to your grey value, and then put a white rectangle behind - select both and make bitmap copy

edit - ok you used the mehdi method