Remove background from downloaded images

General General discussion
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So, I’ve seen a few comments for folks looking for resources, and I’ve had similar issues where you can’t find the right image with a transparent background. When the content is solid it is quite easy but what about a line drawing such as a schematic?

That’s just what I have been looking up.
I used to use Paintshop Pro but my old one stopped working and it’s expensive so I use Paint.net for free (web download not Microsoft store). BoltBait’s plugins are also really useful but not needed here.

Select the Paint Bucket
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In the Colors window click More >>
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Move the Opacity - Alpha slider to the left
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On the toolbar, set Flood Mode to Global and the Blend Mode (the vial/potion icon) to Overwrite

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image886×65 5.94 KB

Click on the background area.

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That’s interesting. I’ve been doing it the way that was outlined in the Paint dot net wiki. I select all of the picture. Then click the Subtract box then the Magic Wand. After that you can click the areas you want to remove and adjust how much of them are removed by the Tolerance adjustment. When you have all you want to remove selected do a copy Ctrl + C then once that is copied do Ctrl + A and hit delete. After the picture is gone then paste what you are keeping doing Ctrl + V and you will have the subtracted part of the image to save. I also have BoltBait’s plugins and they are very handy.

Capture
Capture712×438 35.5 KB

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I often use that method but it just wasn’t playing ball this time so I cast around and found and alternative. Backups are always handy.

At least we have a topic here for easy reference now and maybe we will find even more methods.

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Yep, it’s always good to have a backup plan! Thanks for posting it.

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Learn to use the bezier tool if you wanna really go old-school.

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For transparent backgrounds on images, or even gifs, I simply use the free Online sites that do it too.
Giggle Gif

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Ceers. Never thought of that. I use otf to ttf converters all the time.

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I use unscreen for GIFs plus removebg and imgonline.tools/remove-color for static images.

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Cheers.

See. I know it would lead to a good bunch of resources for folks.

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I use onlinepngtools.com for most png manipulations

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Yeah I haven’t looked at free online resources a long time as I have been using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop exclusively…but man, I was shocked at what some of these free online resources can do now. I am using Canva video editor to make really fantastic 30FPS animated .gif’s for watch face promotional material. Absolutely crazy to think I can do this so easily now.

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