Nifty Show Me How-to #1

Turn a Photo into a Coloring Book Page

Easter is over but not the memories. Turn your photos into coloring pages the kiddos can enjoy after the holidays. I used a photo of Erica’s son counting his egg treasures.

{Photoshop Instructions}

Crop the photo to simplify the picture. Duplicate this layer and name it Layer 1. Now Desaturate Layer 1 so you have a black and white photo. You’ll find the Desaturate command in the drop down menu under Image>Adjustments.

You will need to duplicate Layer 1 for the next step and name it Layer 2. With Layer 2 selected, invert the photo so it looks like a negative. You’ll find the invert command in the drop down menu under Image>Adjustments.

Choose the Color Dodge blend mode in your Layers palette. Your Layer 2 will almost disappear.

Next use the Filters menu and choose one of the blur choices. You can use the Gaussian, Radial or Motion blurs for this step. Move the slider slowly to the right until you have a coloring book effect for your photo. {Thanks for Jennifer Apple for inspiration}

{Digital Image Pro Instructions}

Crop your photo to contain the details you want to save. Choose Filters > Arts and Crafts > Photocopy and play with the advanced options until you get the look of a coloring page.

{Paint Shop Pro Instructions}

Using Paint Shop Pro Photo XI and the black and white pencil script, you can easily turn a photo into a coloring book page. Either turn on the script toolbar by selecting View > Toolbars > Script then select black and white pencil from the drop down and click the GO (arrow) button.

Or, find the script by selecting File > Script > Run. which drops you into an explorer window. Select black and white pencil PspScript from the file list and click open. Click OK through the screens, leveraging the default values. (You can always undo and see what happens as you change some of the default values too.) {Thanks to e-scape’s CT Glenda for instructions.}

Print and supply your budding artists with personal pages of themselves and family for happy coloring!