Does anyone have an idea how to make the white background of an image transparent? I have these images that I want to place on a plaque that are giving me some problems.

I want to burn a border, and place 3 different images and a couple of text boxes. But the images have this large white background that keeps getting in the way when I place the images. Is there a solution?

I'll attach the images.

Thanks!

Can you just make sure they are on the "bottom" so all the text and things within Corel (assuming you're using Corel) will then be put over the top? Then if the white background it really white, it won't be noticed.

Click on the image, then press Shift-Page Down to bring it all the way to the bottom of everything, or Control-Page Down to bring it down by one. (or, depending on what you're doing Shift-Page Up to bring everything else up).

But removing a background is different, and you should use Paint instead of Draw for that.

Shaddy

Bring it into Paint, Magic Wand the background, invert the mask.

The most important thing is to save it as a CPT file then import it into Draw. Copying and pasting does not work with th mask.

You can also feather the mask first for an effect if need be.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

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

Ed,

You can also use the node edit tool in Corel to create the mask area. Bring in the file and choose the node edit tool then select the image now double click and add nodes to the "White Space" bring that boundary into the graphic and you can eliminate any white space that is saved with the graphic.

Wow! Do you guys ever sleep? lol

The magic wand, invert works, I think...I'm trying to place 3 images and a border on a 12 by 15 alder plaque with 3 text boxes. I'm thinking about burning the portrait image (it's a memorial plaque) seperately.

Do you think the photograph check box on the advanced tab helps in rendering picture images. I'm using Photograv to autoprocess (light cherry).

I have an Epilog Mini-24 and when I use Photograv then the selections on the Epilog driver's advanced tab for clipart vs photograph have no effect. They are for when the image contains shades of gray, and a photograv image contains nothing but pure black and pure white.

When not using photograv then that selection has a major effect on photographs and images with grayscale. The clipart choice converts grays into halftone patterns and the photograph setting converts grays into dither patterns. I find the dither patterns to work far better for photographs. But again, that is only if the photo was not converted via photograv. When photograv is used first the image contains no shades of gray and those settings should be meaningless.

Now if you were to add other things on top of or around the photograv image, such as a border or text, and if those contained anything except pure black and pure white, then the settings would effect those items.

Somebody on another forum with a much older epilog claimed that he did see a difference between those settings when using photograv, and I believe he kept his set at clipart. But I have tested it with my Mini-24 and they have no effect for me on photograv images. And they shouldn't as long as the image being sent from Corel contains no shades of gray.

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.