Changing the color of your digital Sentiments in Gimp

I've had several people ask me if my Copyright Terms allowed for changing the color of my Digital Sentiments and if so how to do it. The answer is Yes, you are allowed to change the color of my digital sentiments just like you do with inking a rubber stamp with a different color. Although there are several ways to do it, I have included instructions for using the free program Gimp.

Gimp is absolutely Free and comparable in capabilities to some commercial programs. You can download it here: http://www.gimp.org/

Changing the color of a sentiment in Gimp
1.) Open Up Gimp
2.) Go to File Menu
3.) Select Open and find the digital sentiment you wish to change

Note: A jpg file contains a single flat layer with a white background. Png have transparent backgrounds so you can superimpose them on top of another design and the transparency will appear as a grey checked background.

Once you have loaded your sentiment in Gimp
1.) Go to the Colours Menu
2.) Select Colourize
A pop up menu with 3 sliders will appear

These sliders are Hue, Saturation and Lightness.
1.) Move the lightness a bit to the right and you will notice the black lines will begin to change color.
2.) Cycle through Hue to find the actual range of colors such as blue, red, green etc
3.) When you are satisfied with the color click ok
Note: If you are trying to change the color of a jpg file format, you should be careful with the amount of Lightness you choose because it may also tend to change the color of your white background as well.

After you are satisfied with the color of your sentiment you can copy it into work for printing.
1.) Go to the Edit menu and select copy.
2.) Open a new document in Word for Windows and paste the sentiment by clicking your right mouse button.
3.) A menu will appear. Select Paste.


Png Files in Gimp. If you want to change the color of a Png file follow all the steps above until you get the copy stage. Before you try copying the design to Word you might want to flatten it so it no longer has a transparent background as pasting a designs with a transparent background directly into work may produce a black background which you do not want. To flatter your finished design:
1.) Go to the Layers Menu
2.) Select Transparency
3.) Remove Alpha Channel

You should end up with an image that has been colored and has a white flattened background.

If you are not that familiar with Gimp it may be better to save your finished colored design / designs in Word. This will make it much easier to print out future sheets with several sentiments which have already been colored.

Additional Note: Although I have Gimp and know a little about it, it is not my first choice in graphic programs because I use a combination of Paint Shop Pro (a commercial program) and Inkscape to create all my original designs. I also do not use or print out jpgs or pngs like most people using digital stamps. I prefer to use svg / vector images which is the format I original create all my designs in as the resolution is much higher than jpgs or pngs. If you have any additional information that you think other members might find useful, please share it here.

Happy coloring :) Chris / CS Designs