How to Recolor Images in Silhouette Studio

Have you ever had a JPEG or PNG image that you wanted to use for a project, but you wish it was a different color? Well that is totally possible with the Image Effect Tool in Silhouette Design Studio. 

This is great for print & cut applications. The recoloring option works for PNG and JPEG images, but does not work for PDFs.

Silhouette School contributor Kati from Houseful of Handmade is here to share how to use one of her favorite features in Silhouette Studio, Image Effects, to recolorize non-SVG images. 

Select the Image Effect Tool on the right side toolbar. In the Image Effect panel there are a lot of options, but we will focus on just two of them to recolor our image: Colorize and Tint.

How to Use Colorize in the Image Effects Panel

The Colorize option is the quickest and easiest way to change the color of your image. It works great for multi color images because it re-colorizes all parts of the image (except black and white). With your image selected, slide the arrow up or down to see the color of your image change. Or you can type in the an amount (great for recoloring multiple items to the same colors). When you have the color you want, press Apply to change it.

If your image now has a black box around it, go to Line Style and select the Transparent option for the line color to remove it.

How to Use Tint in the Image Effects Panel

The tint option allows you a bit more flexibility in choosing what tints or tones in the image you adjust. It can give you more options, but it can also be a little trickier and require a bit of tweaking to get things right. I also find that this works best for images with colors in similar shades or else not all colors come out pretty in the end.

For this quick video I have 2 different PNGs so you can see what I mean about the one with lots of different colors not working as easily. Select the image and slide the arrow up or down to increase or decrease the amount of each tint. For example, if you take the red higher it will add red to the image but if you take it lower it will remove red from it. You can adjust all the tints, until you get the exact new colors you want for your image then hit Apply.

And again, if your image now has a black box around it, you can select none in the Line Color tool to remove it.

That is how easy it is to recolor any images, clipart, or even digital papers you have to make them work perfectly for your next project. If you like using your Silhouette for creating beautiful home decor items, make sure to come check out my Paper Decor tutorials and say hi!


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