How to create rose gold dots on jpeg image

[ElizaChannon]

Hi there

I'm a complete newbie to photoshop but am trying it out to help me retro-engineer a place card for my wedding after 2 people are attending late (after all my place cards are created). I don't want these guests to feel like they've been forgotten, but it's too late for me to order new place cards.

It's probably not a great solution but I've managed to create a copy of the place card (attached) but the dots are all real rose gold pressed from the stationery provider. Because I can't get back to the printers, I'm trying to create more realistic looking rose gold dots on top of the image in photoshop, they don't print realistically at the moment.

I've watched so many youtube videos on gold textures and vectors and masks in the last 2 days trying to figure it out. I'm sure it's really easy but I just don't have much experience in photoshop, and only have a day or two to figure it out.

Attached is the jpeg place card - I'm wondering if someone would be kind enough to tell me how I'd make those rose gold dots look more realistic in photoshop? I've downloaded a rose gold texture, but I'm not sure if that's how to do it!

Thanks so much in advance,

Eliza.

[Semaphoric]

Maybe you could do something with some sort of transfer material. You could possibly get some metallic film that would be close.

[ElizaChannon]

Thanks Semaphoric, would that be some sort of effect in photoshop?

[Semaphoric]

Eliza - The material I was referring to is a paper or film that you print on, usually with a laser printer, although there is stuff that works with inkjet.This creates a decal of sorts that you can apply to a substrate (paper), usually with a mounting press, although a laundry iron probably would work. You can often fint the material at an art supplies store

I should add that I have never used the stuff..

[ElizaChannon]

I see what you mean, thanks Semaphoric. Yes I've seen you can buy gold foil and press yourself, but I think that could be really difficult with the size of the dots. Definitely something to consider though. Thanks.

[Omar.Fathy · Accepted solution]

Cards like this should have a special color (GOLD) Print.

We make our design then make these dots in a separate file (Black color). They print all cards then print the gold color as a separate with a gold material.

Another way is making it and make dots in a spot color in Ps or Illustrator. It will not be realistic gold but they will use a special gold material for print.

So, to have a gold a real gold texture in print it will be the job of your print house. But to make a gold material in photoshop you can't have the real texture you will just can have a still image texture without light reflection.

[ElizaChannon]

Ok thanks for your help Omar. I'll see whether the print shop can assist me, as it doesn't sound like what I'm after is going to be achievable in photoshop.

Many thanks

Eliza.

[davescm]

Just to add - in case anyone else comes across this thread, gold, or silver, is not just about colour it is about reflections.

You can simulate gold in an image using Photoshop by "reflecting" other parts of the image using layers (or using 3D materials with an image environment to reflect).

However what you can't do is make the resulting print reflect the changing viewing environment around the card in the way a real metallic surface would do. That takes a separate printed gold material as will have been used on your original cards and as recommended by Omar.

Dave

[jane-e]

We just made bookmarks for a friend's milestone birthday and found gold dots in Adobe Stock:

https://stock.adobe.com

They are in Illustrator and are editable, but you could place them in Photoshop as an Illustrator file.

127426879 and 174816153.

If you have Illustrator, you can use Recolor Artwork to change the dots to any color you want.

[ElizaChannon]

Thanks jane-e, I might investigate illustrator, thanks! I know I wont be able to achieve that metallic reflection, but I've seen a lot of photoshop tutorials about how to achieve a gold-like effect using different colours in photoshop. So I just hoped to create something a little more realistic than what had printed out on the jpeg file.

Many thanks for your time!

[jane-e]

You can see how many colors were used in the Illustrator file you can buy from Adobe Stock. There's a palette of colors across the top, and each of those circle represents a color. But linking the colors and changing the hue takes seconds. If it were me on a time crunch, I would buy the image, but that's just me.

[ElizaChannon]

Thanks Jan-e, I'm definitely happy to buy an Illustrator image file if that's an option. I have downloaded a rose gold texture in photoshop, but I'm not sure if I can use it in the same way. I'll investigate the Illustrator option in the meantime. Thanks again!

[Bo_LeBeau]

It seems like people are over-thinking the OP's problem.

Unless I am missing something, she only needs TWO (2) name cards and only has a day or two to do this.

No printer that offers gold foiling is going to take a foiling order for a single sheet that only has 2 items on it.

Most printers that offer this option don't actually produce this in-house, but sends orders to a vendor that specializes in this. So, order too small to bother, and the turnaround time of 1 or 2 days is unlikely to be met.

Printing in a Spot color has similar issues of only single sheet, time, and the fact that metallic spot colors don't look that great compared to foiling.

Semaphoric has a good idea about metallic transfer material, but the OP is worried about the size of the dots, how to do, etc.

Since the OP admits to being "a complete newbie" in Photoshop (and I assume, also in Illustrator) trying to create the effect in either application, even with help from the forum members, is  not likely to be speedy or productive. She is also under a deadline of a day or two.

Why not just print the 2 place cards and get some glitter, sequins or other shiny material and glue them to the cards?

They won't an exact match to the other cards, but if done nicely, they are likely to have other guests wishing they had gotten one of the "special" cards.

Even just printing regular cards shouldn't be an issue, since they did R.S.V.P. too late.

The wedding is going to have a lot more pressing issues that these 2 name cards. Don't stress out.