Changing a B/W line art image to sepia or color using Hue/Saturation

[FranGran]

I'm working with some digital stamp images for cards and sometime when I open one I can change the lines color to Sepia or color, using Hue/Saturation and other times I can't.

Is there a format that works best for this or is it something I'm doing to the files.  I love the effect when I can get them to work.   Any help will be appreciated.

I love Paint.net and did buy it from Microsoft.

TIA, Fran Walton 

Edited May 29, 2019 by FranGran

[dipstick]

An easy way to color line art assuming it's black lines on white background:

 

1) Add a bank layer under the image and fill it with color desired.

2) Change blending mode on image layer to "Screen"

 

Example:

 

[IHaveNoName]

There are loads of plugins that will do this job very easily.

 

I think the problem with the basic Sepia tool and a line drawing is that difference between 100% black lines and the very dark brown of the Sepia tool is difficult to see on screen. The Sepia 2 plugin is better as you can adjust the intensity but it colours the white areas as well which might not be what you want.

 

The Manual Color plugin works well particularly if you want a particular sepia hue - you just set black (000000) as the primary colour and the sepia hue you want (4B1E00 is a good warm brown) as secondary. There is some colouring of the white areas but it is more subtle than the Sepia 2 tool and can be minimized if you just up the contrast afterwards.

 

The Recolor Choice plugin does a similar job with the same primary secondary colour combo. You may have to adjust the tolerance and transparency settings for best results but these extra options can be used creatively.

 

Boltbaits' Color Balance tool can be use too. It will tone the white areas but again use of contrast can bring it back to full white but actually a sepia image often looks better on a slightly tinted white background.

 

I've not used it much myself but a quick test I did shows the Duotone Ink On Paper plugin looks especially good for this job because if you adjust the sliders for the primary and secondary colours practically any tone from b/w to full sepia is very simply achieved without it appearing to affect the white background at all.

 

In silver based photographic printing warm toned papers ie. ones which had a more cream coloured paper base than pure white were often used for subtle or even dramatic sepia effects. You could get all sorts of different sepia tones by varying the developer/development technique/time/temperature and toner formula. They often affected the paper base tone too. In other words if these line drawing are to used for cards think about the tone of the white base not just the line art itself.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by IHaveNoName

[FranGran]

Dipstick, you suggestion works great.  I'm using it a lot.  Thank you very much.  It amazes me what this program will do.

 

[dipstick]

Good that it worked out for you. FYI, if you want to change the color of the white background instead of the black lines, then use "Multiply" blending mode. For the record, this is just basic blending mode effects and has nothing to do with any s/w...

 

[dipstick]

Speaking of line art. I took this line art drawing and converted it into animated paths. I then used PDN to convert those 455 frames into a GIF.