How to Edit a Pre-Made Logo in Photoshop

The right logo is an essential part of your business. It has to be simple, yet indicate or at least hint at the nature of your business. It has to be interesting and professional.

Creating logos is harder than it seems. Most of the time, amateur logos really look like amateur logos. But that doesn’t mean you can’t tweak an existing pre-made logo to your liking. 

Hey there, I’m Cara! I might not be a logo creation expert, but I do know my way around Photoshop. Today I’m going to show you how to tweak a pre-made logo in Photoshop to create the perfect logo for you!

Note: I use the Windows version of Photoshop. If you are using a Mac, the workspace will look slightly different from the screenshots displayed here.

Editing a PSD File

When you buy a pre-made logo, you might get the PSD file depending on who you buy it from and the type of product. If that’s the case, making changes to your logo will be a piece of cake.

Editing Text 

For example, if you want to modify the text, simply select the text layer in the Layer’s panel.

Activate the text tool from the toolbar on the left or by pressing T on the keyboard.

Now you can fix typos or change what the text says completely. Or you can make changes to the font, color, size, etc using the tools in the Options bar. 

Editing Elements

If you want to make changes to one of the elements, just select the element in the Layers panel.

Press Ctrl + T or Command + T to activate the Transform tool. From there, you can resize or reposition the element.

If you want to change the color of an element, choose the Paint Bucket Tool from the toolbar on the left.

Then click on the foreground color near the bottom of the toolbar.

The color picker will appear, allowing you to choose your new color. Then press OK and click on the element whose color you would like to change.

To get all instances of the chosen color to change, uncheck the Contiguous box in the Options bar. Photoshop will change all pixels in the same layer that are the same color as the spot you clicked on, regardless of whether they are touching one another or not.

Increasing the tolerance will include a wider range of similar colors. Decreasing the tolerance will limit the colors to a narrower range that is closer to the exact color you clicked on. 

You can make other changes to your logo as desired by clicking on each layer and making the proper adjustments.

What if you don’t have the PSD file for a given logo? Maybe you just have the PNG. Or worse, the JPEG. There aren’t separate layers of the logo for you to select and edit. 

So you can’t edit it, right?

Wrong! It’s a little more difficult, but you can still make a lot of changes. Let me show you how!

Step 1: Remove the Background

First, if your logo file has a white background, we’ll want to get rid of it. The Magic Wand selection tool makes this quite simple to do.

Choose the Magic Wand from the toolbar on the left.

If you have gray in your image, as I do, set the tolerance pretty low so it doesn’t select any of the gray parts. If there are white parts in the logo, select the Contiguous box so Photoshop only selects white parts that are touching the area where you click. 

I’m going to uncheck the Continguous box because there is no white in my logo and I want Photoshop to select the white parts inside the letters. See what happens if I make the selection without checking the contiguous box?

The white parts inside the letters don’t get selected. So I’m going to make my selection with the contiguous box unchecked. Then press Backspace or Delete to remove the selection.

Press Ctrl + D or Command + D to deselect the selection and you’ll have your logo on a transparent background. This is represented by default by this checkered pattern. Check out this article if you want to change how Photoshop displays transparency.

Step 2: Make Edits

At this point, you can make simple edits, though you are limited in what you can do.

Change the Color

For example, you can change the color of an element using the Paint Bucket tool as we explained earlier. Just choose your foreground color and click on the part of the logo you want to change.

Remove Elements

If you want to remove part of the logo, you can do this with the Eraser Tool. Keep in mind that edits made with this tool are destructive, meaning you can’t come back and make adjustments.

Choose the Eraser Tool from the toolbar on the left. 

Adjust the size of your brush and configure any other settings you need in the Options bar.

Then click and drag over the parts of the logo you want to remove.

Add Elements

Adding elements is quite easy. Go to File in the menu bar and choose Place Embedded. Then navigate in your computer to the element you want to add and click Place

The element will be added as a new layer on top of your logo. The transform tool is already active when you place the element, so you can resize and reposition it as needed. 

Changing the Font

Changing the color of the text in your logo is easy, but changing the font is a little more complicated. Generally, you’ll have to erase what’s there and start over. 

In my example, the font is the only black element in my logo so we can use the Magic Wand tool to select only the text. 

Press Backspace or Delete to erase the text. Press Ctrl + D or Command + D to deselect the selection.

Now choose the Text Tool from the toolbar on the left.

Now you can add text using whatever font, color, etc that you desire. 

However, take note. Sometimes, removing the text will remove parts of other elements. Notice how that happened to my little camera when the text in the original logo was on top?

You can fix that with the Clone Stamp Tool.

Hold the Alt or Option key and click on the spot you would like to clone. Then, carefully brush over the area you want to fix. 

When you zoom in, you may also find traces of the text that didn’t get erased. You can remove those with the Eraser Tool.

Add in your new text and bam! A whole new logo!

Though editing a logo is trickier without the PSD file, it is far from impossible if you know what you’re doing!

About Cara Koch
Cara fell in love with photography circa 2014 and has been exploring all corners of the imagery world ever since. When she felt limited by Lightroom, she dove headfirst into Photoshop to learn how to create the images she wanted.

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