A lot of you have written in asking if it’s possible to change the colors of press cards files.  Yes, it is most definitely possible and ridiculously easy to do too! recoloring just takes a few simple (even if you’re a photoshop newbie) steps. There are a couple of different ways you can go about recoloring a layer in photoshop, I’m going to walk you through one of them. (Note: the steps and screenshots are written for CS5 but can easily be adapted to earlier versions of photoshop, including photoshop elements.)

STEP ONE – Open one of your press cards PNG (not pdf) files.  I’m using presscardno1-1.png in this tutorial.

STEP TWO – Click on layer style button at the bottom of the LAYERS PALETTE. (layer > layer style

STEP THREE – Select COLOR OVERLAY.  (layer > layer style > color overlay)

STEP FOUR – The LAYER STYLE window will come up. Click on the color swatch box (next to BLEND MODE) to bring up the color palette.

This window will pop up.  You can select your new color by clicking on the color spectrum or manually entering the RGB values.

You can also pick a color form the swatches palette (located at top right).

STEP FIVE – Once you’ve picked your new color, click OK on the SELECT OVERLAY COLOR window, then click OK on the LAYER STYLE window and there you have it.  Now you’re ready to print your newly recolored cards!

If you want to recolor a specific part of the file, like the word “PLACES” for instance, you’ll have to first isolate that object before applying the color overlay. Read on.

STEP SIX – Select the MARQUEE TOOL. We’ll be using the tool to select “PLACES”

STEP SEVEN – Place the mouse where you want to begin your selection (I start at the top left), then holding down the LEFT mouse button, drag the mouse to make your selection, then release the mouse button. You should now see a dotted outline around your selection.

STEP EIGHT – Right click on your mouse and select LAYER VIA CUT

STEP NINE – Because “PLACES” is in its own layer (layer 1) you can change the color without affecting the rest of the file.

STEP TEN – Follow Steps 1 – 5 to recolor PLACES (layer 1)

You can also do the reverse – apply a color overlay to LAYER 0. Or apply color overlays to BOTH layers.  Or isolate more objects (RIGHT NOW, THIS WEEK, etc.) from the file. Now that you know how to separate things out into its own layer you’ve opened up so many customization options! Have fun.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT YOUR PRESS CARDS FILES

In the process of writing this tutorial I ended up making layered psd files where the TEXT and the LABELS reside in its own layer.  Now you can easily recolor one or the other (or both layers!).  A few of you mentioned that you liked the look of the red labels paired with black text  so the PSD file is formatted this way but you can easily change the colors of either layers by following Steps 1 – 5 in the tutorial above. Hope you find this update helpful!

To access the updated files, just go back to the original download links that were sent to you when you purchased the kit(s).