Recolor Buttons

[Ziki]

Hello,

I am using photoshop CS2 and I want to recolor the default vB buttons and some images.How could I do that?I was trying to edit the buttons,and use a gradient overlay on the button color,but that didn't look well.

Also when saving an image.The images in PSDs are larger than the ones used on the forum.When resizing it and saving as GIF the quality is not as it is on the default ones.How to achieve this?

Thank you

Best Regards

[Shelley_c]

If i recall, the layered PSD that jelsoft provide is absolutely useless if you want to make proper colour changes via the blending mode method for that base layer of the button. The gradient overlay (amongst other effects) seem to be embedded, so anything you implement is only adding on existing effects.

A lot of people will use the hue and saturation adjustment layer which is fine if you like your buttons saturated/dull. I would suggestion using the colour balance method. Simply highlight the base layer (underneath the text) so you have a mask that doesn't overlap the buttons edges and make the colour changes by adding an adjustment layer (colour balance) to get that desired effect. The result is colours being more vibrant to the eye though this is only a make do solution.

By adding a overlayed gradient your only adding another gradient on an existing gradient which looks awfull. The colour balance method is (what I think) the best solution atm untill jelsoft release a more verstile layered gdk pack that doesn't have embedded effects on the base image.

Try downloading the smaller gdk, I've only downloaded their buttons once and I'm sure they have a smaller (size you see here) to make the alterations you need.

Edit: I've downloaded the "smaller size" psd buttons. They are infact... unlayered which I find a sloppy method of distributing graphics to customers. They are flattened which means any colour alterations will be exposed to the text (which you don't want) aswell as the icon. I guess that is the price you pay for having them created in lightwave.

You should visit vb.com and ask if they ever have plans on having the graphics on one psd template, re-sized and sliced and most important layered so customers have a more versatile way of modifying the graphics and making colour changes more easily. I was tempted in re-colouring the default graphics to other colours when I seen that each graphic resides on it's own psd and over-sized. It's not worth my time or effort.

[Ziki]

Thank you shelley that worked great :)

I found a good way to resize the buttons,when resizing set the Resample Image to Billinear or Bicubic Smooth

--------------- Added 1226914105 at 1226914105 ---------------

Ah crap,when saving the images as GIF,all the quality is lost.