Thicken the lines in a line drawing

[2020Solutions]

A friend made a line drawing for a logo and scanned it into Elements 5. When he finished "coloring" it he realized that a small version would be great for a stamp or business card. The only problem is that when you re-size it from 8X8 down to 1.5x1.5 the lines in the logo look too thin. Is there a way to select the lines and then make them thicker. I have tried to help him and neither one of us can seem to make it look the way we want.

[Diana]

Without seeing it, it's hard to advise, but if the lines are large enough to select, you may be able to add a stroke from the Edit menu. Or, after selecting the lines, press Ctrl-J to copy them to a new layer, then change that layer's blending mode from Normal to Multiply.

Diana

[2020Solutions]

Diana,
Thanks for the suggestion. We will give it a try and let folks know how that works.

[frank abramonte]

2020, if the lines are not too complicated you can reduce it to the size you wish. Then create a new 300 dpi blank layer over it and with an appropriate sized black brush recreate the lines. When done color it.
If you enlarge the new document it will be easier to follow the old lines.

[2020Solutions]

Frank,
Another good idea. I just tried Diana's select and adding a stroke from the edit menu and that worked nicely. I will try your suggestion if my friend is not happy with the results from adding a stroke.

[cats4jan]

for some things, you can duplicate the layer and nudge the second layer over one "click" using the arrow keys. It doesn't always work, but it's simple enough to give it a try.

I use this alot - especially when I want to make a font thicker.

[2020Solutions]

Cats4jan,
That is a good suggestion as well. We now have a number of ways to get the results we want. Thanks for everyone's help!

[Ellen]

One thing about using stroke, if you use the inside option the corners stay sharp, center and inside make them more rounded.

[1low720]

Heres a way I use sometimes to thicken up lines on a drawing. Go in to Filters and under Brush Strokes open up the Accented Edges set the Edge Width to antwhere between 1-6 the Edge Brightness to around 24-25 and Smoothness between 1-6 and you will see that you can not only increase the width of a line and also the smoothness of it also. I use this filter at the above settings to some times help add some dark line deffinition to my photos befor I sharpen them.