Color Your Letters in A Color Story App
I am so excited about sharing this tutorial with you! If you have never heard of A Color Story app, you need to check it out! It’s a free photo editing app that is great for touching up photos and making your colors pop. If you already use the app, you have probably never used it to COLOR YOUR LETTERS! Yep. That’s what I said. You can hand letter something in black ink and change it to any color you want. For free. It is done by using the “Color Fog” tool.
I shared this blog post originally. I’m sharing it again because the techniques still work!
I did a whole series of Disney characters using Color Fog Letters. What’s more, I stumbled upon this by accident!
Maybe you’re thinking, “Sounds great! Tell me more!” Or maybe you’re thinking, “WHY would I want to use this?” Let me tell you a few of the benefits of Color Fog Letters.
1. Have you ever spent 30 minutes (or more) trying to take a decent photo of your letters? The lighting is off, it’s cloudy outside, you are using every lamp in the house but can’t get rid of those pesky shadows. I know. I’ve been there. This is not an issue with Color Fog Letters.
2. Next, do you own a pen/marker in every shade and color? Are you waiting for your next paycheck to get that 96 pack of Tombow markers? As much as we wish we could have ALL THE PENS, sometimes we don’t have the right color. Or we know we can’t use yellow because the lighting will wash it out. With Color Fog Letters, you only need a black pen!
3. Lastly, if you who edit your photos in Photoshop or Illustrator and can get the perfect colors and blends on the computer, you may be thinking this is not for you. Have you ever been on vacation and can’t access your computer? Or maybe you want to post something fast without taking the extra time to edit. Color Fog Letters can be done in 5 minutes anywhere that you have your phone. Have I convinced you yet?
Color Fog Letters in 8 steps!
You will need:
- Your words lettered in BLACK ink
- Your phone
- A Color Story app
Instructions:
- Create your letters or pictures in black ink on white paper. ANY pen, ANY style, as long as it’s black on white. (I start with a pencil and then trace in black ink).
- Take a picture. Edit the picture on your phone increasing the “light.” Then raise the “black point” all the way. Raise the “exposure” until the background is completely white. Whitest white and blackest black. Here is what my setting looked like for this one:
Below is the original picture and after editing. Pretty different right?
- Open A Color Story app and click on your photo.
- Click “effects” and “starter” and “color fog.” The light blue and yellow are free and you can do almost anything with just those. Or you can buy the color fog pack for a dollar. It is worth the dollar, just so you know. You can move the color fog by touching and dragging with your finger. If you want one even color, just do one on top and one flipped to the bottom. IMPORTANT: Fade the color fog a bit before saving. The lighter the fog, the darker your words. The darker the fog, the lighter your words. If the fog is too dark, you won’t be able to see your words. See below how I faded the fog by half.
- Click “tools” and “contrast” and raise it all the way. Then click “brightness” and raise it all the way. Then click “contrast” and raise it until the background is white again.
- Next is my favorite! Click “hue shift” and move it back and forth until you find the color you want. If you are happy with the color, you can be done right here. If not, keep going.
- To get just the right color, click “high color,” midtone color” and “shadow color” and move them until you find just what you want. You can also play around with the “saturation,” “brightness,” “curves,” “temp,” and anything else you find! So many possibilities!
- Save your photo and share using #colorfogletters! TIP: You can also save your editing steps to use again later. What?! If you find the perfect color, save it, and next time it’s as easy as one click!
“I was hiding under your porch because I love you.” Dug from Up
That’s it! If you found this helpful, let me know!
I love this tutorial! However I am having trouble getting all of my letters to show up after step 5 with the contrast/brightness/contrast. The middle part will not come up. 🙁 Any ideas on what I could do to fix this or what I am doing wrong?
Hi Caitlyn! I’m glad you are enjoying this tutorial! Step 5 is the place when you find out if there are problems or not. I have a couple of suggestions. First, make sure your picture has really strong blacks and whites. If you are good there, try lightening the fog a little more. If your fog is too dark to start, it will wash out your picture. On Dug, I lightened it to 50%. If I wanted him to be darker, I would lighten it even more. Try that out and let me know if it still doesn’t work. I would love to see what you come up with!