Tutorial | How to Edit Logo Templates

Logo design can be a pricey business if you’re a solopreneur or small company, with many bespoke logo designs and branding packages costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds. Early on in your career you might find you simply do not have that kind of budget.

That’s where logo templates can come in handy. They’re a great starting point and many offer editing capabilities. Generally you will need access to editing software or know someone who can edit the logo for you. There are different software options out there, some free, some paid. If you’re going to buy a logo template always read the product description to make sure you can edit it (or you know someone who can).

My logo templates are predominantly created for Adobe Illustrator and/or Photoshop, but I always provide an .eps file to give you as many choices as possible. This tutorial will show you how to edit my logo templates in Illustrator and Photoshop.

First things first, select the program you plan to use:

Edit logo templates in Photoshop

The first thing you’ll want to do is open the logo file. This will be a .psd file in my logo templates folder.

Each logo is sorted into its own folder, shown in the Layers Panel. Click the blank boxes next to each folder to turn the logos on and off. An eye symbol will appear next to the folder you have switched on, but bear in mind if you have too many selected it might become hard to see what you’re doing. I recommend turning on one folder at a time to make things easier.

If you click the little arrow next to your chosen logo folder, it will show you each of the layers for that logo. The layers contain the different objects used in the design (e.g. a layer for the graphic, a separate layer for the text, etc). Working with layers is pretty straightforward but if you want some extra guidance see the Adobe page here.

With the logo text layer visible, select the Horizontal Type Tool (keyboard shortcut T).

With the Horizontal Type Tool selected, hover your cursor over the text you want to edit. You should be able to click into it and it will be possible to delete the dummy text. Now add your own.

Some of my logo templates are created for shorter amounts of text. If your brand name is long, you might have to do some adjusting to the design. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to select parts of the design you want to move, right-click the selection, and then click Cut from the dropdown.

This is where it gets trickier: you need to make sure you have the correct artwork layer selected in the Layers panel, otherwise you’ll cut empty space and you won’t be able to change anything.

If you’re having problems with this step, check out Adobe’s tutorial on using the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Another alternative to fitting longer text into the template is to make your text smaller and reduce the letter spacing.

Unfortunately not all logo templates will be appropriate for your text. Sometimes you will simply not be able to fit it all in. I recommend trying a different template that allows for more text.

Edit logo templates in Illustrator

Illustrator gives you a few additional options for editing. You can change the colours and tweaks the composition – two things you can’t do as easily in Photoshop. First, open the .ai file in my logo templates folder.

Choose the logo you want to edit. Sometimes it’s easier to zoom in closer so you can better see what you’re doing.

Select the Type Tool (shortcut key T).

If you hover your cursor over the text, you should be able to click into it and remove what’s there. Replace it with your own. You can also change the font, colour, size and spacing.

Once finished, I recommend expanding the text. Expanding an element in Illustrator means that when you scale your logo size the text retains its proportions. Adobe has a tutorial on how to do this here.

Once you’ve finished your design and clicked Expand, you can select the entire logo and paste it into a new Illustrator file. Make sure that none of the logo goes outside the artboard otherwise you’ll end up with missing bits.

Then go up to Edit – Save As and choose your save options.

Alternatives to Illustrator and Photoshop

As I mentioned at the start of this post, there are alternative programs that can edit .eps files, such as Affinity Designer. I’ve not used Affinity on desktop (only iPad) so please make sure to read their support pages before you purchase anything!

Check out these similar posts:

5 Reasons to Take a Break From Creative Projects

How to Create Product Preview Images That Drive Sales

As always, if you have any further questions do get in touch. Either drop me a comment here or use my contact form.