Make Your Own Coloring Book Pages

Using Software to Create Coloring Book Pages

You don’t need to be a sketch artist to make cute coloring book

pages like the one above. All you need are: Photoshop or the less expensive Photoshop Elements and a card making software package like Print Master or Print Artist.

The two raccoons in the example are found in Print Artist.

You may make pages for your own kids or as gifts but may not make them to sell. The actual sketch artists own the copyrights and sell you a license to use the designs for personal use when you purchase the software.

Depending on the age and creativity of the kids who will color the pages, you may want to print out a small version of the original for them to follow.

How to Create the Coloring Book Page

Open a new document in your card making program. Go to the art gallery and select a simple drawing.

Stretch it to fill most of the document; click on it and Copy.

In Photoshop, open a new document selecting the Preset: Default Photoshop Size from the new document menu.

Edit>Paste from the clipboard. Edit>Transform>Scale to stretch the graphic to more or less fill the page.

Filter>Stylize>Trace Contour and move the Level slider until you get the outlines you like.

I moved the slider way down to 29 to get the detail I wanted; but every graphic is different. Sometimes Filter>Stylize>Find Edges provides a better result. It’s fun to play around with Photoshop filters until you get a look you like.

Print your page. Break out the Crayolas and call the kids.

P.S. You can be a kid again too!