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By  Rory O'Kelly, Gallery 1231.
Virtual Blueline is a term coined by Matt Brooker, Aka D'Israeli, and artists and colorist for 2000ad. It refers to an old technique of printing the line art in blue on paper, and in a black on an acetate sheet to be laid over later. We can do the same in Photoshop, using channel selections. This works with at Photoshop 5,6 and 7. It should also work for 4, but I haven't tested it.
Making Selections:
1. Open a picture in Photoshop. This process works best for Black & White line art. You should be able to apply it to any image, but since its a technique for coloring B&W line art, I suggest you use some.
2. Go to Image > Mode, and make sure the image is set to RGB. CMYK can also be used, but to keep it simple we'll stick to using RGB for now.
3. Go to Select > All, and hit CTRL + C to copy the image
4. If the Channels palette is not open, click on Windows >Show Channels.
5. You should have the channels palette in front of you. It has four channels - RGB, Red, Green, and Blue. If not, go back to step 2 and make sure its set to RGB!
6. Click the little left pointing arrow at the top right of the channel palette, and select New Channel. Name it Outline.
7. A blank channel will appear at the bottom. Click on this, and paste in your image with CTRL + V. Invert the image in this channel with CTRL + I.
8. Click back to the layers palette, and click on your image thumbnail.
9. Select All, and go to Edit > Fill, and select White. You should now have a blank canvas in front of you.
10. Create a new layer, and go to Select > Load Selections. From the second drop down menu, select Outline.
11. Select the color you want the outline to be, (blue is the norm, but you can use any color you like.)
12. Go to Edit > Fill and select Foreground color and click OK (or hit ALT + BACKSPACE to bypass all this and fill with the foreground color)
13. Et Viola. (or Eat a Viola, as a friend of mine says) A Virtual Blueline! You can now color away on separate layers to your hearts content. When your done coloring, you can reload the outline selection (remember Select > Load Selection) and fill the top layer with black for a nice solid outline!
A lot of people have asked me how using a Virtual Blueline has any advantage over using a layer with the blend mode set to multiply. It was a difficult question to answer. Both techniques work very well, but the Virtual Blueline provides a slight advantages when it comes to blending layers. The advantage to a blueline is that it allows much more manipulation of the line art. You can color the line art, add special effects more easily, and preserve it's transparency across different applications. One of the big disadvantages to the "blueline" method is that a lot of programs out there (Photoshop Elements for example) don't have access to editing alpha channels or do not make it as easy as Photoshop.
I guess at the end of the day, its really a matter of preference. Its always good to have alternative methods of doing things. It keeps your options open.
FARP Article Guestbook
| Date | Name | Comment | | | 31 Jul 2003 |  Joe Liams | I don't mean to sound ignorant or stupid, but what do you use 'blue-line' for anyway?
The tutorials well written however, and is easy to understand, I just don't know what if its useful or not! | |
| 1 Aug 2003 | Emily 'Pip' Turner | Mebbe i'm a complete moron here, but i can't seem to get it to work...I follow all the steps, but when i go to colour, it just changes the blue different shades...Help? Or maybe a nice bludgeon to the head... | |
| 4 Aug 2003 | Anna 'Hauntess' Albano | Hehe, I take that back, after a few more times, I finally was able to do it, and you know what - it does give a nice avenue for doing some nice, cell-coliring like way of doing things.
Definitely a new trick for me, and although I still have to consult the manual, i think im getting a hang of it.
If you havce more tips and trick for hpotoshop users- I would be VERY happy. | |
| 4 Aug 2003 | Anna 'Hauntess' Albano | I have to say that it did not work for me either. When I create a channel, it keeps defaulting to black background, and I cannot paste anything into it (or at least I cannot see)
Im working with Photoshop 4.5 | |
| 5 Aug 2003 |  Pauli K. Lindgren | Anyway, with Picture Publisher, this can be done somewhat easier:
1. Open a picture in Picture Publisher.
2. Convert it to RGB if necessary.
3. Hit Ctrl-C to copy image.
4. Click the Alpha button to edit Mask channel.
5. Paste image (Ctrl-V, then Enter), then exit Mask editing.
6. Mask -> Invert mask
7. Object -> Create object from mask
8. Select Fill tool and the color you want and fill the object.
9. Select the base image, then Edit -> Clear.
10 Eat some Viola (which is a Finnish cheese spread, by the way). | |
| 5 Aug 2003 |  Pauli K. Lindgren | Your description of what Blueline is is not quite clear. I still do not know exactly how it is done with traditional media.
Further, in your example you are using a gray-scale image, but I think this technique would normally be better suited for (inked) line art. | |
| 9 Aug 2003 | Anonymous | Though I may sound ultimatly stupid. Couldn't you just draw with a blue pecil. | |
| 12 Oct 2003 | Anonymous | ^^ rofl. No but I agree with the first comment, use hue/sat, works well for me. | |
| 16 Oct 2003 | Mr.jack | I think its stupid, why you use a computer to make a picture more beautifull then its not yours anymore!! | |
| 8 Nov 2003 |  Brandy Snellgrove | Bah, that's like saying if you paint a picture it isn't really your because you didn't make the paint.
And this tutorial isn't just about turning your line art blue, it is about preserving your line art when coloring digitally. An alternative to the more limiting 'multiply' blending option. | |
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