Hey Silk,
Thank you so very much!! i will give that a try tomorrow too tired to do any more actual work this morning.
I really appreciate how often you help out in this community. you've helped me so many times which has certainly been appreciated!
ps. i am actually not sure what you mean by a filter that reduces the number of colors unless you mean an adjustment layer. of course, i will go to the manual and look up such filters.
but also, does such a critter work when there is just one color such as white? ty