ColourOverlay Action - OptrixAU/xltoadobe GitHub Wiki

The ColourOverlay action applies a Colour Overlay effect to a Photoshop layer, tinting or completely changing the colour of the images inside the layer.

Photoshop

The parameter is the name of the layer you would like to apply the effect to.

The column should contain the complete CMYK colour, plus the opacity in the following format - C,M,Y,K,O - where each of these is a 0-100 value. So solid Cyan is 100,0,0,100,100.

Preparing Your Layer

If you are switching a layer over so its colour is controlled by this action, we suggest using Hue / Saturation to de-saturate your artwork, leaving it white. Otherwise, the colour you specify in your Excel sheet will be blended with the existing colours, which might give unexpected results.

Looking up your Colours

You shouldn't have to type in these colour names, particularly when they usually MEAN something. If you take a look at the example Excel file for Photoshop, you will notice that we use a VLOOKUP to look up the colour from a table in another worksheet, based on the value of an earlier column.

This means that if you change colour for a particular style of card, you make one change and all of your cards are updated and consistent.

In Other Programs

This action is only available in programs that support colour overlays. For vector-based programs such as Illustrator or InDesign, you might want to use the FillColour Action.