Often times we have a monochrome image, such as an icon or logo that needs to be colored. One might worry that he would need a professional or premium tool for such a task. But that’s not the case. With free tools like GIMP, you can easily change the color of your PNG images and text. Let’s see how to recolor images using GIMP in this post.
If you’re not familiar with Photoshop, GIMP is an excellent alternative. Logos, icons etc. you can use GIMP to change its color, Whether your transparent image has black or other color, GIMP will help you recolor it easily.
There are three methods of recoloring PNG images in GIMP. The first two methods will replace the entire image with a single color and the last method will help you add different colors. Lets start.
Method 1: Change Color Using Colorize in GIMP
In this method, we will take the help of the Colorize feature in GIMP to change the color of a transparent image or text. Let’s check the steps:
Stage 1: Start GIMP and open your PNG image, preferably with a transparent background using File > Open. If your image has a background, learn how to change the background color to transparent in GIMP. Then continue.
Step 2: Click on the Colors option in the top bar. Select Colorize from the menu.
Stage 3: The Colorize window will open. Click on the color to show the list of available colors.
Then select the color and click OK to add the color to your image.
Step 4: Click File > Export as to save your image. The Export window will appear. Make sure to save the image in PNG format by adding the .png extension to the name of the image or you will lose the transparency of your image. Click Export to save.
Method 2: Change Color Using Fill Tool
With the help of the fill tool we will change the color of an icon or text in GIMP. Here are the steps:
Stage 1: Open your transparent image in GIMP using File > Open.
Step 2: Right-click on your image layer in the layers slot and select Alpha for selection. Learn more about how to use layers in GIMP.
Doing so will select the visible portion of your image.
Stage 3: In the color selection box, select the foreground color to replace the original color of the image.
Step 4: Go to Edit in the top toolbar and select Fill with FG color. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + , (Windows) and Command + , (macOS) to fill the selected part of your image with the foreground color.
Here’s what your image will look like:
Step 5: It’s time to save the picture. For that, go to File > Export As. As mentioned in the method above, save the image with a .png extension to preserve transparency.
Method 3: Change Color to Multiple Colors Using Bucket Fill Tool
In the above methods, all the image or text has been replaced with a single color. What if you want to add different colors to different parts of your image? This method will help you do that. Let’s check the steps:
Stage 1: In GIMP, open your image whose color needs to be changed.
Step 2: Right-click the image layer in the Layers slot to select the visible portion of your image. Select Alpha for selection.
Stage 3: Select your preferred color as the foreground color in the color selection box.
Step 4: Click the Fill Bucket tool to activate it. Then click on the part of the picture where you want to add the color.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 for other parts of your image, choosing a different foreground color each time.
Here is what the image used in Method 2 looks like when using this method:
Step 5: Finally, save the image from File > Export as. Don’t forget to save the image with .png extension.
Tips for Changing Color in GIMP
Two tips for better results when changing colors in GIMP.
Use Selection Tools
Instead of selecting the entire image as shown in the methods above, you can select a portion of your image using different selection tools such as the Blur Selection and Select By Color tool. The first one will select an infectious region by color and all regions with similar color will be selected by the Color picker tool. Once the required piece is selected, change its color using any of the methods mentioned above.
Fill with Pattern
In methods 2 and 3, you can fill your image with a pattern instead of a solid color. To do this, select Fill With Pattern. Then select a pattern and click on it to fill the selected part of the image.
Fly: The pattern used in the screenshot was created in GIMP. Learn how to tile an image and use it as a pattern in GIMP.
Explore GIMP
The possibilities are endless with GIMP. You can use it to change the background image of the image, create awesome YouTube banners, crop images into shapes like circles, create transparent text and much more. What are your favorite things to do in GIMP? Share them with us in the comments below.
Next: Adding shadows to text creates a fascinating effect. Learn how to add shadow to text in GIMP from the next link.
