Option 1:

Draw directly into Photoshop

Drawing in Photoshop requires a drawing tablet. The drawing tablet connects to your computer allowing you to control the mouse with a pencil control. Some tablets have built in screens so that you can see what you’re drawing on the tablet. With the Brush Tool(B) in Photoshop, you simply draw onto a blank art-board within the program. To do it well, you must develop a good understanding of the software, you need to know how to select different brushes, adjust the size of the brush, create layers, select color, etc.

I have a tablet, but the only thing I use it for is writing notes on hand-lettered illustrations that I send over to clients. Illustrations on paper take more time, can be messy, the eraser is a tedious alternative to cmd+z, and finding places to store old drawings is a challenge. From a design perspective, the tablet is more efficient and practical than paper illustrations , but I prefer drawing on paper. This is because I spend a large amount of time on the computer and having a chance to step away from glowing pixels to create something ‘real’ is wonderful. I also prefer paper illustrations because of the inefficiency (vs digital illustration) - spending more time on something leads to better design.

Option 2:

Import an Illustration to Photoshop

I use this method to quickly convert my illustrations into raster images with white backgrounds. I present these to clients or use them on my website. Once you get the hang of it, the entire process takes about 1-2 minutes and gives illustrations a refined look.

Prior to digitizing, my goal is to create a highly refined illustration so that I don’t pressure myself into having to making large scale changes during the digital process.

Final Illustration: Instead of attempting to draw my Pies logo on the computer at an extremely small size, I drew it at a larger size, knowing that I could move it to the computer in Photoshop later.

Step 1. Scan or Photograph

Scan the illustration, I do a black and white scan using between 300-600dpi. I prefer to use a flatbed scanner because it’s time efficient and accurately ‘captures’ the lettering, where a photo would slightly tilt/distort it.

Scanned Illustration: Black and white scan at 600dpi using a flatbed scanner. (The scan is a .jpg, which is a raster image)

Step 2. Import the Illustration

After you’ve scanned or taken a photo of your lettering import it to Photoshop by simply dragging/dropping the image onto the Photoshop icon, or by opening Photoshop and selecting (File > Open > *Find/select your image > Open). This will create a new document with your image set as the background layer.

Step 3. Unlock the Layer

If there is an lock icon next on your image layer you’ll need to unlock it before you can edit the image. There are a couple ways that you can unlock layers.

• Double-click the layer that says “Background”, Select “OK”.
• Select the layer, press (Cmnd, Opt, shift, b) at the same time, then select the “Ok” button.

Step 4. Adjust the Canvas Size

You’ll need to adjust the canvas to an appropriate size. These are the steps I take to adjust the canvas and resize the image to fit:

• a. Resizing - When you open a scan or photo in Photoshop, the canvas size is determined by the size of the image, which in this case, is way too large.
• b. Canvas Size Menu - To adjust the canvas size, you need to bring up the menu. You can do this by using the key command (Cmnd, Opt, C) or you can find it by selecting the Image menu > Canvas Size.
• c. Adjust the Size - Increase or decrease the size of the image by simply typing in new dimensions for the width and height. I’m using a 4:3 image ratio (1200px by 900px). Remember, if you enlarge a raster image it begins to lose quality.
• d. Don’t Worry - After selecting ‘OK’ on the canvas size menu, a notification will pop-up telling you that “The new canvas size is smaller than the current canvas size; some clipping will occur” - This is okay, because we’ll simply resize the image to fit the new canvas size.
• e. Resize the Image - Now that the canvas size has been reduced, we need to resize the image so that it fits. To do this, I use the Free Transform tool (Cmnd + T) or Edit > Free Transform). Holding (Opt + Shift) while you click and drag the corner of the image, will keep it centered and maintain the original proportions while you resize it.
• f. You’ve done it - In case you’re wondering, you can show/hide the rulers by pressing (Cmnd+R) or by selecting View > Rulers.

Step 5. Adjusting the Levels

The background of the original scan will not have a perfectly white background and the lettering itself usually appears slightly lighter. I use the Levels tool to give the image a white background and to slightly darken the lettering. This technique is fast and maintains the original hand-drawn texture of the lettering. Here’s how I do it:

• a. Open the Levels Menu - To open the Levels Menu, you can use the keyboard command Cmnd+L or by selecting; Image > Adjustments > Levels.
• b. Adjust the Input Levels - In this section, there are three different markers; a dark, medium and light one. Moving the light one to the left of the big spike will make the background white. Moving the dark marker to the right will make the lettering darker.

Step 6. Remove Imperfections

Here’s how I make improvements to an illustration by removing imperfections.

• White Background - Add a white solid color layer by selecting the circular icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel > Solid Color… or be selecting; Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Since the scan layer’s background is already white, adding a white background behind it lets you erase pieces of the scan and maintain a solid white background.
• Move it to the Bottom - Drag the white solid color layer below the scan layer. Do this by clicking/dragging the layer.
• Touch-up - Make sure that you have the scan layer selected (click it). There are two tools that I use to remove imperfections in Photoshop; the Eraser(E) and the Quick Mask Tool(Q). The eraser simply erases while the quick mask tool allows you to add and subtract areas using the brush tool. I’m not going to cover how to use these tools in detail, if you’re interested in learning more or have a questions, send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll do my best to help.

Step 7. Re-position/adjust lettering

Sometimes I’ll re-position and make edits to single letters. I start this process by removing the background (paper) from the scan, leaving just the letters. Then, I move each object that I’m going to adjust onto its own layer. This lets you move them around individually. After you struggle through this process a couple of times, it becomes extremely fast and efficient, so don’t be intimidated. Here’s how I do it:

• a. Color Range Menu - Open the Color Range Menu by selecting; Select > Color Range > ‘Click on a white section of the image’. After clicking OK you should see marching ants (the moving dashed line).
• b. Select the White - Select the white by clicking anywhere on the image that’s white. Click OK.
• c. Adjust the Selection - If you were to press delete without adjusting the selection, your lettering would become faded and transparent looking. I’ve found that the best way to maintain the look and feel of the original lettering is to negatively shift the edge of the selection. You can do this in the Selection Properties Menu (Cmnd+Opt+R) or Select > Select and Mask.
• d. Shift the Edge - In the menu you can give the Shift Edge option a negative value by moving the marker to the left. It takes some experimentation to find the right value (I’ve bee using around -50%). Click Ok.
• e. Delete the White - After you’ve adjusted the Shift Edge value, and clicked OK, press Delete (on keyboard) to remove the white from the scan layer. You can check to see if this worked by turning off the white background layer (Click the eyeball icon). When you turn off the white layer you should see a checkerboard as the background, this represents transparency in Photoshop.
• f. Separating Stuff - The idea is to create a separate layer for each element that you want to adjust and then delete that element from the original scan layer. This lets you move it around by itself. Start by creating a copy of the scan layer (Right-click the layer > Duplicate Layer). In this example, I’m pretending that I want to adjust the D. I turned off the visibility of the original scan and then erased everything else.
• g. Erase it from the Original - I turned off the layer containing the D, selected the original scan layer and then erased the D from it.
• h. Moving Things - Now that the D is on a separate layer, it can be moved around using the Move Tool (V). Tip: Holding shift while dragging with the move tool restricts the object to moving only vertically or horizontally. Also, naming your layers is helpful.
• i. Separating the Pies - I used the Lasso Tool (L) to draw a selection around the Pies logo, pressed Cmnd+C to copy it, Deleted it from the main scan layer and then pressed Cmnd+Shift+V to paste it in the same place on its own layer.
• j. Moving the Pies - Using the Move Tool (V) I moved the Pies logo by clicking and dragging it.
• k. Shrinking the Pies - Finally, I shrunk the logo using the Free Transform Tool (Cmnd+T) while clicking and dragging the corner of the box holding Opt+Shift. Holding Option+Shift while scaling keeps the image in one place and maintains its original proportions. After I scaled the logo I created a new layer, moved it underneath the logo layer and painted white within the logo using the Brush Tool (B).

Original Scan

Raster Image (.jpg)

Step 8. Saving an Image

You can export regular images (File > Export > Export As) or web-optimized images (File > Export > Save for Web) from Photoshop. The save for web option gives you the ability to control the image quality, which directly contributes to the file size. I’m not going to go into depth on file formats and image sizes, the most important thing to take away is that raster images can be exported from Photoshop.

This process has a lot of steps, but with practice it becomes super fast and easy. It’s an amazing time-saver, with endless applications. I use it to improve rough concepts, try out and isolate letter options and to improve final illustrations.

Option 1:

Manually Tracing Using the Pen Tool

The Pen Tool is the most powerful tool in Adobe Illustrator. With it, you place your own anchor points and adjust the curves that are associated with the points by moving the handles. This is the method I use most frequently.

My blog post on Tracing with the Pen Tool using Adobe Illustrator will teach you how to manually convert lettering into a vector graphic using the Pen Tool.

Option 2:

Auto trace using Adobe’s ‘Image Trace’

• a. Import the Image - I created a new document in Illustrator (1200x900pt) and dropped in the image from the raster demo. If you’re going to use image trace, I recommend adjusting the levels in Photoshop (like we did in the raster demo) to increase the contrast.
• b. Image Trace - With the image selected, click the Image Trace button.
• c. Adjust the Trace - To adjust the settings of the trace, click the Image Trace Panel icon.
• d. Image Trace Menu - First, expand the advanced settings by clicking on the Advanced option. Adjust the settings of the trace to change the look of the image. Here are the settings I adjust and a description of what each affects:
  • Threshold - The threshold is a method of image segmentation that converts the image into black / white. A lower threshold number picks up less detail and light content than a higher number.
  • Paths - This effects the texture of a lines. A higher number will show more detailed texture.
  • Ignore White - This option defaults to unchecked, if you check the box, only the black content will be traced.
• e. Expand the Trace - After you’ve adjusted the settings, click the Expand button, this converts the image into a vector object.
• f. Vector Graphics - Now that your raster image is a vector graphic, it can be colored and sized without losing quality. It can also be saved as a vector based file (.ai, .eps, .svg).

Even though Image Trace is an efficient way to convert raster images into a vector graphics, I don’t use it. Image trace can’t achieve the accurateness of a manual trace and when I want to use a textured piece of lettering I’ll create it in Photoshop so that the real texture doesn’t get lost.