How to Edit Uneditable Text in Photoshop

A Photoshop incident that happened to me recently…

Table of Contents

Problem

Imagine you have a drawing, a “legacy document”, which includes some text that you need to change.

Since the drawing’s layers have been “flattened out” quite some time ago and it’s now a pure raster image (like .JPG or .GIF) you cannot obviously use your Text tool to edit it.

Even if you could, you might not have the exact same fonts to make sure the edited text or letter does not stand out from the rest of the characters in the drawing. It needs to be a PERFECT match. That’s your assignment.

So how are you going to do it?

Solution

Simple. Adobe Photoshop can edit ANY image on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

Since the text at this point is nothing but another image, you can blow it up to 800% or 1,000% and edit it pixel by pixel. I know, it is painful and can take a long time depending on your image. But sometimes that’s the only solution out. And when you’re done, everyone will think you had access to original text and fonts because the effect is indistinguishable.

Follow these Photoshop steps:

Let’s say you have this image in which you want to change OFF on the left to ON, just like the one on the right:

(1) Blow your image up to at least 800% view to make sure you see the individual pixels clearly:

(Click to enlarge the images)

(2) Grab your ERASE (E) tool and erase the letters you do not need:

NOTE: If TRANSPARENCY shows through the “delete holes” make sure you include a layer UNDERNEATH your current one that is filled with the BACKGROUND color.

(3) Select the EYEDROPPER TOOL (I) and sample the color of the pixel(s) in the letter that you will copy — in our case, the letter “N” on the right. You have changed your FOREGROUND COLOR to the right value.

(4) Select the PENCIL TOOL (B) and start adding one pixel at a time to sculpt your NEW letter “N” by copying pixel positions from the OLD letter “N”. To draw your pixels in perfect vertical and horizontal lines hold the SHIFT key while dragging the pencil tool.

(5) Shift back and forth between the EYEDROPPER and PENCIL tools as many times as necessary to make sure you are picking up all the fine shades of various pixels. You can do that easily by just pressing the I and B keys.