Convert image to outlines in Photoshop

Published on December 18, 2025

Convert an image to outlines

Looking for a way to turn illustrations or graphics into outlines in Photoshop? This step‑by‑step guide shows you how to use Photoshop’s Blending Options to strip away colors and reveal bold contours. You’ll learn the exact settings and workflow to generate outline‑only visuals quickly — ideal for graphic design projects, illustrations, and printable coloring pages.

Rather watch the video with instructions? Click here to watch the YouTube tutorial or scroll down to the end of this page.

This method only works if your illustration has black outlines. If you want, you can download the image I used here.

Step 1: Remove colors

Open the file that you want to use.

First unlock the background layer. You do this by clicking on the lock icon.

Then click on the Fx icon at the bottom of the layer panel and select ‘blending options‘.

Move the right slider under ‘current layer‘ to the left until all the colors are gone.

Add a solid color layer and make it white.

Place the Color Fill layer below the layer with the illustration. You should now have a white background and black outlines.

Step 2: Smoothen lines

If I zoom in now, you can see that the lines are not very smooth.

To smoothen the lines, I’ll use Generative Upscale.

Go to ‘Image > Generative Upscale‘. You can see the settings I used in the image below. Be aware that Generative Upscale consumes credits. The amount of used credits is based on the model and upscaled file output size.