That was it! Thanks

By the way, where is Guntersville? My son is a sophomore at The University of Alabama, and we are down there 2 or 3 times a year.

Hi Roy!

I did use David's reference to the Foster Coburn article. I must admit that the magic wand/invert/Cut selection for PhotoPaint/Remove series of commands worked very well until I got to the Select Mask/Remove command series. At that point, Remove was grayed out.

I'm not sure if it was a problem with my original image or not. There was a 3rd image of a man's head involved in this project. All 3 came from a graphics design person at a local printing plant. The CEO wants me to make a memorial plaque on alder for a deceased employee. I think the graphics person is quite more adept at Photoshop than I am, and she wants me to just print her design. That just didn't work, because she sent it as a layered .jpg and the images just didn't turn out very nice. I got the images by way of email from her and they have these boxes. I managed to reduce the sizes by way of the node tool because I was getting frustrated. I know that the way you and David are suggesting is best and I intend to pursue that technique some more.

Thank you for showing an interest in my little problem! I'm impressed.

I'm attaching a Corel file of a miniature version of my project which I burned to show to the CEO before I do a 12 by 15.

Roy, et al .... I have tried your solution to this seeminly simple problem with an *.eps file with Corel X-3 but I have been unsucessful removing the background. I know in CorelDraw saving an image to a bitmap and checking {transparent background} should also remove the background or make it transparent but I just can't get it removed. HELP! What am i doing wrong or is it with X-3 that is the problem?
The only way I have been able to make it transparent is to import it with the EPS filter then use the trace bitmap feature, view it in wireframe mode, ungroup all of the individual vectors, remove the outer 'frame' vector and then re-convert into a bitmap. Unfortunately this seriously reduces the image quality and tends to change a lot of the image's colors.
Your help would be greatly appreciated as I have a project that is due tomorrow and I thought I would be able to 'pull it off' myself... so far no go! :-$

Harvey thanks so much .... I have attached the file for your efforts! I greatly appreciate it@!

correction: the file is too large so I sent you an email.

Yes, big file. But you could have posted it and then removed it. I brought it into CD9 and saved it. Over 3.6 Meg. Great resolution.

It should be by you already. The instructions on how to do it are in a second Email, just in case your server dumps big files without notification. (Many do.)

EDIT: I forgot to mask it, duh.

I tried to upload it to a special area of the forum and it did not get there.
I will have to try to do it a different way and post it so you can download it.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

OK! I uploaded it directly into the forum. Let me know when you pick it up, it is now 8.5 Meg, (1,000 DPI).

http://engravingetc.org/Harvey/upload/04.cpt

Right click, 'Save target as...'.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Hi Harvey ... thanks for dooing that .... now, the only question(s) is(are):
1. How do I get that do that stage with x-3?
2. After I downloaded the image, and imported it into either Corel Draw or Corel Paint, at first in the 'preview' mode I can see the image with the mask over it in Corel Paint or the whole image in Corel Draw. However, after I actually import it (using the cpt filter) I only get a empty box. What is with that?

Thanks

John

Carl explained it right.

Cursewords! I forgot to invert the mask, getting senile.

Open it with Paint, invert the mask and resave it. Then it will come into Draw they way you want it. (Did the tough stuff, forgot the simplest one.)

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Hi Carl ... thanks for offering your feedback to this thread ... I really appreciate your comments and I especially enjoy looking and utilizing your interesting macros you offer in Corel Draw.
When i imported Harvey's file into CorelPaint as you suggested and select all objects (masks) and then invert the mask and then save it as a cpt file then open it into Corel Draw it comes in as two objects: image and the background mask which i then ungroup and then delete the background mask and yes, it removes the background mask but unfortunately the mask still has a lot of background white space in it. I am still needing the steps to be sucessful in this process with X-3.

Thanks for your time...

Bring the file in as it was. Go to 'Mask/Invert', (or CTRL+SHIFT+I in ver 9).

Now save it. All you want is that automatic mask. It will import into Corel as a single masked object.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

John,

Having not seen the original graphic I cannot help, but I would suggest you contact Pradhan Balter. I am certian he will know the answer. He is very amiable to helping folks...especially those involved in ARA.

You can contact him at pradhanATretlabgraphicsDOTcom.

Mention my name if you need to.