# Chalk/Blueprint effect in Photoshop **URL:** \ **Category:** design\ **Created:** [June 3, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152 "2008-06-03T19:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![w1sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7feea3/32.png) [@w1sh](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/w1sh)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/1 "2008-06-03T19:06:02Z")
My boss and I have been trying to figure out how to make a chalk/blueprint effect in Photoshop in a few steps so almost anyone could do it. IE: [http://webs.ashlandctc.org/csimmons/sites/misc/help.jpg](http://webs.ashlandctc.org/csimmons/sites/misc/help.jpg) Basically what the designer of this has done has pulled the background color from these images and found their edges. Or so it seems… I don’t know. I’ve been fooling around with this for about a week now. If anyone can take a normal pic: ![](https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/13/14116806_269c383e19_z.jpg?zz=1 "Chemistry Lab Equipment") and figure out how to apply that effect in an easy and consistent way, I’d be super appreciative. Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![fasterthanlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fasterthanlight](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/fasterthanlight)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/2 "2008-06-03T19:13:42Z")
Ok, i did 1. Filter \> Stylize \> Find Edges 2. Desaturate (CTRL-Shift-U / Command-shift-U) 3. Invert ( CTRL- I / Command - I) 4. New Layer \> fill with blue [\*\* put below image layer \*\*] 5. Set layer blending mode of the image (not blue fill) to **Screen** 6. Fiddle with levels on the image layer to remove unnecessary lines ![](http://www.maybe-tomorrows-ashes.com/xx_drop/blueprint.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![w1sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7feea3/32.png) [@w1sh](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/w1sh)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/3 "2008-06-03T19:27:38Z")
It’s terrifying you did the EXACT same thing I just did before I checked this… Edit: …who are you anyway? Ô\_o ---
**Author:** ![fasterthanlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fasterthanlight](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/fasterthanlight)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/4 "2008-06-03T19:30:08Z")
Owww, my brain ---
**Author:** ![w1sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7feea3/32.png) [@w1sh](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/w1sh)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/5 "2008-06-03T19:34:49Z")
Bah I was lying anyway, I used Color Range to get the edges, but screened it the same way. Looked about the same. Anyway, its not the exact effect I’m looking for. It doesn’t have that notebook xray look. More like a glowing edge look… I’m trying to do something like this: [http://webs.ashlandctc.org/csimmons/sites/misc/sketch.jpg](http://webs.ashlandctc.org/csimmons/sites/misc/sketch.jpg) [http://webs.ashlandctc.org/csimmons/sites/misc/sketchblack.jpg](http://webs.ashlandctc.org/csimmons/sites/misc/sketchblack.jpg) Brightness +50, Black and White, Invert But those actions don’t work at all with real pictures, only sketches. Any suggestions on how to get a real picture to look a lot like a notebook sketch (refer to sketch.jpg)? ---
**Author:** ![fasterthanlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fasterthanlight](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/fasterthanlight)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/6 "2008-06-03T19:39:12Z")
no combination of filters will turn a regular picture into an illustrated sketch (a believable sketch) the most you can do is fiddle with the Sketch filters ---
**Author:** ![w1sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7feea3/32.png) [@w1sh](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/w1sh)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/7 "2008-06-03T19:40:21Z")
[quote=fasterthanlight™;2335833]no combination of filters will turn a regular picture into an illustrated sketch (a believable sketch) the most you can do is fiddle with the Sketch filters[/quote] Ah crap… Thanks for the help. I’ll keep you posted on my progress and hopefully make a script for this effect. ---
**Author:** ![fasterthanlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fasterthanlight](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/fasterthanlight)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 7:56pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/8 "2008-06-03T19:56:13Z")
Well, i mean, there is a difference between an image that has been illustrated solely for this kind of effect, and taking a picture and molesting it into the effect… and since you want to be able to do this to a wide variety of images, quickly, the end result will be vague ---
**Author:** ![w1sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7feea3/32.png) [@w1sh](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/w1sh)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/9 "2008-06-04T12:58:38Z")
Yeah, it just seems that the microscope in [http://webs.ashlandctc.org/csimmons/sites/misc/help.jpg](http://webs.ashlandctc.org/csimmons/sites/misc/help.jpg) might be a picture and not a sketch. ---
**Author:** ![fasterthanlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fasterthanlight](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/fasterthanlight)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/10 "2008-06-04T13:42:00Z")
Yea for sure, it was probably traced to get all the contours, and then photoshopped to create the effect the tracing is the key to a believable blueprint type of effect, because simply finding the edges isn’t the same as finding the contour lines… now… if only there was a photoshop plugin that did that 😛 ---
**Author:** ![simplistik](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/simplistik/32/7747_2.png) [@simplistik](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/simplistik)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/11 "2008-06-05T20:25:14Z")
[QUOTE=fasterthanlight™;2335833]no combination of filters will turn a regular picture into an illustrated sketch (a believable sketch) the most you can do is fiddle with the Sketch filters[/QUOTE]:sure: lies :whistle: I knows hows to dos it 😊 you just have to think outside of the box w/ the filters and what you’re “used” to seeing them do. ---
**Author:** ![fasterthanlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fasterthanlight](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/fasterthanlight)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/12 "2008-06-05T20:45:03Z")
I disagree, a photo isn’t a blue print, a blue print is the skeleton of a photo… these have to be manually designed to get the proper effect, otherwise, like i said, you’re just molesting something into something it is not supposed to be, which could turn out to be sloppy Lets see your method simp, is it able to be batch applied to a group of images? ---
**Author:** ![simplistik](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/simplistik/32/7747_2.png) [@simplistik](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/simplistik)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/13 "2008-06-05T20:51:15Z")
[QUOTE=fasterthanlight™;2337532]I disagree, a photo isn’t a blue print, a blue print is the skeleton of a photo… these have to be manually designed to get the proper effect, otherwise, like i said, you’re just molesting something into something it is not supposed to be, which could turn out to be sloppy Lets see your method simp, is it able to be batch applied to a group of images?[/QUOTE] I have no method, I just figured I’d say the most vague thing I could think of and see what people would say :lol: ---
**Author:** ![fasterthanlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fasterthanlight](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/fasterthanlight)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/14 "2008-06-05T21:02:52Z")
BAHAhahahaahahahah, it all makes so much sense now ---
**Author:** ![glosrfc](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/glosrfc/32/8334_2.png) [@glosrfc](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/glosrfc)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/15 "2008-06-05T22:31:12Z")
I agree with both of you…unless it’s a suitable picture in the first place, then no amount of messing with Photoshop’s filters will produce an ideal result. However, as Simplistik says, if you think outside the box it’s possible to produce a reasonable result from any picture - mostly by manually using the pen tool to apply the trace effects rather than using Photoshop’s edge-finding filter. Like everything else in life (including drawing an original blueprint) it takes time and effort to produce a decent result. ---
**Author:** ![fasterthanlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fasterthanlight](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/fasterthanlight)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/16 "2008-06-06T12:22:38Z")
Yea what he said ^ 😛 ---
**Author:** ![w1sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7feea3/32.png) [@w1sh](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/w1sh)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/17 "2008-06-06T19:48:22Z")
[quote=glosrfc;2337605]I agree with both of you…unless it’s a suitable picture in the first place, then no amount of messing with Photoshop’s filters will produce an ideal result. However, as Simplistik says, if you think outside the box it’s possible to produce a reasonable result from any picture - mostly by manually using the pen tool to apply the trace effects rather than using Photoshop’s edge-finding filter. Like everything else in life (including drawing an original blueprint) it takes time and effort to produce a decent result.[/quote] I tried tracing an image and applying a chalky-ish brush, but it looks pretty silly. I really think the only way to do this is to use a REAL sketch. Which will suck… Because then I’ll need a lightbox… …Of course… I could make one. 😮 ---
**Author:** ![fasterthanlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@fasterthanlight](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/fasterthanlight)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/18 "2008-06-06T20:08:12Z")
> Which will suck… > Because then I’ll need a lightbox… …Of course… I could make one. 😮 just use photoshop filters to make the lightbox lol ---
**Author:** ![w1sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7feea3/32.png) [@w1sh](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/w1sh)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/chalk-blueprint-effect-in-photoshop/262152/19 "2008-06-09T15:58:52Z")
> [@fasterthanlight™;2338280](#): > > just use photoshop filters to make the lightbox lol And flatten my flat-screen monitor? THAT’S JUST CRAZY ENOUGH TO WORK!!! Edit: Just tried it. Thanks for tricking me into scratching my monitor all to hell! You should’ve specified not to use knives to trace with. Jeez… You owe me.