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Snagit 9 Tutorial:

Create Artistic Stamps

Beautiful, artistic stamps can be made from vintage public domain block prints, ornamental fonts, art deco / nouveau decorations, and more. This tutorial will teach you how to use Snagit Editor to create decorative stamps from vintage artwork. The stamps created in this tutorial are available for download on the TechSmith website.

example stamps

About this Project

Estimated time to complete this tutorial is 15 minutes.
Once you have completed this tutorial, take this technique and apply it to other captures.
This tutorial does not demonstrate how to take a screen capture. To learn how to do this, see the Snagit online help.

What you Need to Get Started

You will need the following to successfully complete this tutorial.

Snagit 9.0. If you do not have Snagit 9.0, you can download a copy here.
An image to use to create the stamp(s). It is best to use images with a solid or almost solid background. You can download and use these free Artistic Stamp Examples. Unzip these to a folder that you specify.
The image you want to use should be open in Snagit Editor’s Open Captures Tray.

Skill Level: Intermediate

This tutorial is suitable for intermediate users of Snagit. Knowledge of downloading and unzipping a file, using the ribbon tabs, copying and pasting, and saving files within Editor is required.

Let's Get Started: Creating Artistic Stamps

The following section takes you through this tutorial step-by-step. To be successful, do not skip any steps.

This is the image used in this tutorial. From this image, four stamps will be created.

sample image

Create White Background Using Fill

Zoom in on the image to 200%.
In the Draw tab, select Drawing Tools group > Fill button. Choose the color, white.
In the Draw tab, select Styles group > Effects button > Tolerance option > 20%.
Click the canvas to flood-fill the background. Your image will now have a mostly white background but there will be areas that need to be cleaned up. Notice how the fine areas between the scrolls and feathers still have color in them.
Click with the Fill tool on the larger areas between the feathers and scrolls to continue creating a white background. Zoom in if necessary. Note: The smaller, hard to reach areas will be changed in the next step.

Remove the Hard to Reach Areas Using Color Substitution

The Color Substitution effect is used to remove the hard to reach and antialiased background areas of the image. The following image gives a good look at some of these hard to reach areas. When working with the Color Substitution effect, it is import to make changes in small increments so the image itself is not lost.

color substitution

In the Draw tab, select Modify group > Color Effect button > Color Substitution option. The Color Substitution dialog box appears.
Click Add.
Click the Old Color eyedropper button.
Click on a part of the canvas that needs to be removed.
Click the down arrow in the Color accuracy field to specify the range of colors remove. As you do this, notice the colors in the range specified are being removed little by little. If a part of the actual image is removed, click the up arrow to restore the part of the image that was lost.
To remove all of the background, you may need to repeat steps 2-5 several times adding several, slightly different colors. Tweak the Color Accuracy of each one to incrementally remove the background and antialiased areas.
When you are done, you will have nice clean lines as seen below.

Remove any Other Unwanted Areas

In the sample image being used, there is a border that needs to be removed. The image you are using might also have unwanted areas. Here are some tips for removing unwanted areas:

Use the Draw tab > Drawing Tools group > Selection tool to select any unwanted areas and press the <Delete> key. In the Quick Styles Gallery, choose a Selection shape that works best for your image.
Use the Draw tab > Drawing Tools group > Eraser tool to remove hard to get areas. Use the Outline > Width option to control the size of the Eraser.

This is how our image looks with all of the background and borders removed.
remove unwanted areas

Apply Transparency

In the Image tab, select Modify group > Color Effects button > Transparent Color.
If you are prompted to change to 256 colors, choose Yes. The Transparent Color dialog box appears.
Enable the Use Transparent Color option.
Click the Eyedropper tool.
Click on the image’s white background.
Click Close.

Select and Save the Stamps

In the Draw tab > select Drawing Tools group > Selection tool.
In the Quick Styles Gallery, choose the Selection shape works best for cutting out the first stamp. If the images are very close together, use the Freehand tool.

Draw a selection around the first image to be saved as a stamp.
Right-click the selection. From the menu, select Save Selection As.
The Save As dialog box appears. Enter a file name, select GIF as the file type, and click Save.
Repeat steps 3-5 for the remaining images.
When you have finished saving the images as GIF files, close the image.

Add to Quick Styles Gallery as a Stamp

In the Draw tab, select Drawing Tools group > Stamp tool.
In the Draw tab, select Styles group > click the More button.
At the bottom of the gallery, click Organize Stamps. The Organize Stamps dialog box appears.
Click the Add Category button.
Enter a name for the new stamp category.
Click the Add button.
Browse and select all of the GIF images you just saved.
Click Close. The transparent stamp images are available in the Stamp Quick Styles Gallery in the category that you created.