Have you found the PERFECT printable online? Well, almost perfect. You’d just lite to tweak a title here and a section there and THEN It would be perfect.
Not being able to find the exact designs I wanted online was one of the reasons why I began to make my own. If you don’t want to start from scratch though, finding an almost perfect download and editing it is a great shortcut. Keep in mind though that you won’t be allowed to sell or share the edited file in any way. For that you need to come up with your own design or you’ll get in trouble with the original designer and possibly his/her lawyer.
Many printables that are available for free or purchase online are PDFs. Some PDFs have text that you can edit in Adobe acrobat reader, but most of them don’t. When that’s the case, I’ll teach you how to edit them in Photoshop insted.
To help you make the “almost” perfect printable fit YOUR needs I’ve put together a nifty little step by step tutorial. Actually, it ended up not being so little, so have a yummy beverage ready beside you and lets dig in.
First, open Photoshop. 😉
Click “file” then “open”.
Navigate to where you have the PDF saved. Click on it and the click “open”.
We don’t want to work on the original, in case you’ll want to use it as is later. So click “layer” and then “duplicate layer”.
In the pop-up window, choose “New” in the scroll down. Then click “OK”.
Close the original by clicking on the x.
There are several ways of removing the text you don’t want. Today I’m goint to show you how to “paint” it over.
Since the background on my PDF is white, I make sure that the foreground color in Photoshop is set to white as well.
If your background isn’t white; double clich the foreground color. The Color picker will appear and you can use the eye dropper to pick the right color direktly from the PDF background.
Click on the paintbrush in your tools panel (or click B on your keyboard).
Click the “brush preset picker” (the downward arrow). If you dont already have the basic brushes loaded; click the gear in the corner and choose “basic brushes”
Pick a round brush of appropriate size.
Start painting over the text you don’t want.
Now grap the text tool by clicking on the T in the tool bat (or click T on your keyboard).
Click where you want your text.
Type in the text you want.
While still using the text tool, double click your text.
Click the downward arrow by the font name and find the font you want to use.
Click on the font you want to use.
Click the check mark in the top bar to approve the changes you’ve made.
Write out all the text you want on your pdf.
If you need to allign text; select both text layers and click allign vertical centers.
To make everything one layer; select all layres in the layers panel.
Right click on the pdf layer and chose “merge layers” (or click ctrl+E on your keyboard)
You’ve now edited the text on your PDF and it’s back to one layer and ready to be printed.
Click “file” and “save as” to save your new, edited version.
And that’s it friends. Even though it took a lot of slides, it’s really super simple and if you know your way around the tools and shortcuts in Photoshop it doesn’t take more than a few minutes.
You can make any changes you want on any PDF weather you’ve bought it or it was free. Making changes doesn’t give you the right to share it or sell it though.
Now go change that PDF printable that you LOVE, if only it was slightly different. 😉
[…] Source: How to edit PDF printables in Photoshop | Hanna Nilsson Designs […]
LOL great tutorial and this is always something I’ve wondered about. I’m so new to Photoshop!
I was once new to Photoshop too so I know how overwhelming it can feel. Glad I could help!
That is amazing! I saw the word photohsop and I immediately clicked on your post!!
I’m glad you like it Chelsea! It’s always nice to meet fellow photoshop lovers. 😊
I have been creating my own printables from scratch in Photoshop, but this is definitely an idea worth pursuing. Thank you Hanna!
You’re very welcome Claudia! I often create my own too but if you find one you like, it can be quicker to edit that one than to start from scratch.