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I'm trying to create a logo from an image that I want to be one color where the white space is transparent. How can I convert it so that there is only one true color (black) where the edges aren't pixelated with gray and white pixels as well? I tried converting it to Grayscale, flattening it, using Adjustment Layers, but I can't convert it to a single color.

I used to be able to accomplish this with PhotoShop, but I don't recall the specific steps that I took to make it work. Unfortunately, I no longer have access to the full version of Photoshop to be able to try and replicate the process. I have Affinity Photo and a trial version of Photoshop Elements as far as available software. The attached image shows two versions of the same image: the original is on the left and the one on the right shows how bad it looks when I try to add color in the transparent sections.

(Disclaimer: my apologies for any terminology that I misused above; Pretty sure that's why I'm having problems finding a solution!)

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  • Just set the blend mode of the black layer to Multiply. It won't be vector and as an SVG it'll merely be a wrapped raster image... still not vector. If you need or want vector, see Billy's answer (Thanks @Kyle )
    – Scott
    Oct 28, 2020 at 22:03
  • And... I totally agree with @Billy Kerr- this is a few minutes to draw in vector program and the end result will be way more usable all the way around.
    – Kyle
    Oct 28, 2020 at 22:04
  • Scott: your comment on the blend mode is the closest I've come to an answer on this. Not quite there yet, however...
    – Realto619
    Oct 30, 2020 at 9:14
  • The only way to eliminate some of the anti-aliasing is to redraw things as vector. But you'll still get anti-aliasing on angles and curves. That's merely how pixels work.
    – Scott
    Oct 30, 2020 at 19:25

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Graphic designers generally don't use raster software for designing logos. They use vector software such as: Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, Affinity Designer, Inkscape (which is free), etc. You've tagged your question "vector" and "SVG", so I suspect you already know this.

My advice would be to redraw the artwork using vector image editing software. Since vector graphics don't have pixels, you will avoid problems like this from happening in the first place. If you don't have the time/skills to redraw it, both Illustrator and Inkscape have auto tracing which can give good results, but the quality will depend on the quality of the original (which in your example isn't so good, to be honest).

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  • Thanks for the alternatives, but not really what I was looking for. Maybe I didn't explain it well enough. I was really interested in being able to flatten the image down to one color using an Adjustment Layer or maybe another option, but I'm not sure how to do that. I tried using AutoTrace in Inkscape but I need to check out some tutorials on it to get a better result. Things were certainly easier when I had access to Illustrator, but alas...
    – Realto619
    Oct 30, 2020 at 9:13

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