Crop background

I’d like to be able to crop the background of a .jpeg image (currently white) so that all that will remain is the image with no white border around it.

Can someone please explain the easiest way to achieve this?

Just a little clarification of what I’d like to do.
I have been able just now to go in and paint all of the white backgound to black (was very painstaking work).

But that still doesn’t achieve what I’d like to do. I’d like everything in the background of the image to be colorless/transparent, to adopt the background color of the paper being printed on.

When I will now import this .jpg into another program the image will import as a rectangle, with the background now black. Is it possible to import an odd shaped image (not a rectangle) or failing that, how can I import this rectangular image into an app that doesn’t allow the background to be transparent?

TIA Ric

wrote in message

I’d like to be able to crop the background of a .jpeg image (currently white) so that all that will remain is the image with no white border around it.

Can someone please explain the easiest way to achieve this?

Just a little clarification of what I’d like to do.
I have been able just now to go in and paint all of the white backgound to black (was very painstaking work).

But that still doesn’t achieve what I’d like to do. I’d like everything in the background of the image to be colorless/transparent, to adopt the background color of the paper being printed on.
When I will now import this .jpg into another program the image will import as a rectangle, with the background now black. Is it possible to import an odd shaped image (not a rectangle) or failing that, how can I import this rectangular image into an app that doesn’t allow the background to be transparent?

TIA Ric

If your background is white and this does not impinge on the subject, you could use the magic wand tool set to a low tolerance to select the white before deletion.
JPG’s do not support transparency, you need to save it either as a GIF or a PNG file.

HTH
MH

Mike Hyndman wrote:

wrote in message

If your background is white and this does not impinge on the subject, you could use the magic wand tool set to a low tolerance to select the white before deletion.
JPG’s do not support transparency, you need to save it either as a GIF or a PNG file.

Thanks for your help Mike!
I used the magic wand and was able to to select the white areas surrounding the subject.
To delete do I just hit ‘delete’ or choose ‘clear’ from the menu? I tried each but didn’t see any visual change on screen.

As for saving, which is key, my version of Photoshop doesn’t allow saving in GIF or PNG format. Any other ideas?

TIA Ric

wrote in message

Mike Hyndman wrote:

wrote in message

If your background is white and this does not impinge on the subject, you could use the magic wand tool set to a low tolerance to select the white before deletion.
JPG’s do not support transparency, you need to save it either as a GIF or a
PNG file.

Thanks for your help Mike!
I used the magic wand and was able to to select the white areas surrounding the subject.
To delete do I just hit ‘delete’ or choose ‘clear’ from the menu? I tried each but didn’t see any visual change on screen.

Ric,
Either should do it.
On later versions, 5 and above at least, If you are only working on one layer, the background layer, you need to double click on it to unlock it, hold the alt key down at the same time and you won’t have to do a manual rename.
If you have achieved transparency, the deleted white areas should be replaced with a chequer board pattern.

As for saving, which is key, my version of Photoshop doesn’t allow saving in GIF or PNG format. Any other ideas?

?? Just how old is it? I’m not surprised it won’t save as a PNG if it is so old, but GIF’s been around since PS, I’m sure. Can you save it in an "indexed" version? Have you checked in the help files?

Regards

Mike H

TIA Ric

Granny typed:
[snip]

I’d like everything in the background of the image to be colorless/transparent,
to adopt the background color of the paper being printed on. TIA Ric

There is no white ink in your printer so everything that is white does not get printed and will take on the color of the paper.. as such, the other inks red, yellow, blue will also take on the color cast of the paper because they are translucent colors designed to be printed on white paper to give them their proper colors.. that’s why the colors look different when printed on regular paper as opposed to the whiter photo papers.. Sooo, if you leave the white areas alone and print the picture on green paper.. everything that was white will not get printed and will show as green
—
"Granny"
Old N Slow N Prefer Quick N Easy

Mike Hyndman wrote:

If you have achieved transparency, the deleted white areas should be replaced with a chequer board pattern.

Thanks!

?? Just how old is it? I’m not surprised it won’t save as a PNG if it is so old, but GIF’s been around since PS, I’m sure. Can you save it in an "indexed" version? Have you checked in the help files?

Believe it or not it’s v. 3.0 It’s got:

Photoshop, Amiga .IFF, BMP, EPS, JPEG, PCX, PICT, PXR, RAW, SCT, TGA,TIFF

The help files don’t mention anything about ‘indexed’ version.

Ric

granny wrote:

There is no white ink in your printer so everything that is white does not get printed and will take on the color of the paper…. Sooo, if you leave the white areas alone and print the
picture on green paper.. everything that was white will not get printed and will show as green

Thanks Granny! Of course you were correct. The ‘white’ area did take the paper’s color.

Which got me wondering. What happens if you are printing on colored paper and you want certain areas of your pic/image to come out as pure white?

Ric

wrote in message

granny wrote:

There is no white ink in your printer so everything that is white does not get printed and will take on the color of the paper…. Sooo, if you leave the white areas alone and print the
picture on green paper.. everything that was white will not get printed and will show as green

Thanks Granny! Of course you were correct. The ‘white’ area did take the paper’s color.

Which got me wondering. What happens if you are printing on colored paper and you want certain areas of your pic/image to come out as pure white?

Ric

There is a method in CMYK where you create a white plate which is printed off professionally.

HTH
MH

wrote in message

Mike Hyndman wrote:

If you have achieved transparency, the deleted white areas should be replaced with a chequer board pattern.

Thanks!

?? Just how old is it? I’m not surprised it won’t save as a PNG if it is so
old, but GIF’s been around since PS, I’m sure. Can you save it in an "indexed" version? Have you checked in the help files?

Believe it or not it’s v. 3.0 It’s got:

Photoshop, Amiga .IFF, BMP, EPS, JPEG, PCX, PICT, PXR, RAW, SCT, TGA,TIFF

The help files don’t mention anything about ‘indexed’ version.

Ric,

Are the help files in Latin?
What OS are you running it on?

MH

Mike Hyndman wrote:

There is a method in CMYK where you create a white plate which is printed off professionally.

Thanks Mike.

Well over the last few days it looks like I’ve come full circle and am back to my original problem.

I went into Staples a few days ago and learned that they only stock white paper for CD labels. I’m not planning on hunting around for colored paper so I’ll work with the white labels.

That means I’ll need to paint in the background color or come up with a pleasing soft background image.

And that will mean that unless I find a way to make the .jpg images that I have (with their white borders) transparent, I will have white borders around my image when I print it onto the white labels.

Any help would be appreciated. I’m using Photoshop 3.0.

TIA Ric

Mike Hyndman wrote:

Are the help files in Latin?
What OS are you running it on?

I like your sense of humour! 🙂
I’m using Win ’98.
The app opens lightening fast in it and works quite nicely actually.

Ric

wrote in message

Mike Hyndman wrote:

Are the help files in Latin?
What OS are you running it on?

I like your sense of humour! 🙂
I’m using Win ’98.
The app opens lightening fast in it and works quite nicely actually.

Ric,

Do you know what? I bet it does as well. 😉
The changes over the years haven’t all been improvements.

MH

wrote in message

Mike Hyndman wrote:

There is a method in CMYK where you create a white plate which is printed off professionally.

Thanks Mike.

Well over the last few days it looks like I’ve come full circle and am back to my original problem.

I went into Staples a few days ago and learned that they only stock white paper for CD labels. I’m not planning on hunting around for colored paper so I’ll work with the white labels.

That means I’ll need to paint in the background color or come up with a pleasing soft background image.

And that will mean that unless I find a way to make the .jpg images that I have (with their white borders) transparent, I will have white borders around my image when I print it onto the white labels.
Any help would be appreciated. I’m using Photoshop 3.0.

Ric,
How will you see a white border on white labels? Is it not possible to print straight on to the CD?
Can you post your image to http://www.pixentral.com ? If you can post it, copy the address in the address bar when the image displays at pixentral and paste it into a message to the NG.

regards

Mike H

Mike Hyndman wrote:

Ric,
How will you see a white border on white labels? Is it not possible to print straight on to the CD?
Can you post your image to http://www.pixentral.com ? If you can post it, copy the address in the address bar when the image displays at pixentral and paste it into a message to the NG.

Hi Mike,

I’ll see a white border because I’m planning on having a light pastel kind of background that will cover the entire label. On top of this background will go the pic (see address below) and some text.

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1WZDRkxNbv7i4Pvj5T QHSwXfPyLekg

TIA

Ric

wrote in message

Mike Hyndman wrote:

Ric,
How will you see a white border on white labels? Is it not possible to print
straight on to the CD?
Can you post your image to http://www.pixentral.com ? If you can post it, copy the address in the address bar when the image displays at pixentral and
paste it into a message to the NG.

Hi Mike,

I’ll see a white border because I’m planning on having a light pastel kind of background that will cover the entire label. On top of this background will go the pic (see address below) and some text.
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1WZDRkxNbv7i4Pvj5T QHSwXfPyLekg
TIA

Ric,

I see, how are you going to print your labels, from what application? PS?

Regards

Mike H

Mike Hyndman wrote:

I see, how are you going to print your labels, from what application? PS?

Probably Mediaface (Neato) or Click’N Design, these are label apps.

Ric

On 4 Nov 2006 20:54:44 -0800, wrote:

Mike Hyndman wrote:

I see, how are you going to print your labels, from what application? PS?

Probably Mediaface (Neato) or Click’N Design, these are label apps.
Ric

Hi Ric! I also used Neato for a while, and to be honest, I ended up getting an Epson R220 printer so that I can print directly on CDs and DVDs. The printer was on sale for $60, and the printable CDs and DVDs are almost the same price as the non-printable disks. Back to the Neato labels, I stopped using them because they would eventually "bubble up" off the CDs. I started using those glue sticks to glue those CD labels to my CDs, even though those CD labels are adhesive backed.(I rubbed the glue stick on the top of the CD). This helped stop the "Bubbling" up of the labels, but didn’t do anything for DVDs. I would never use a label on a DVD, because they cause too many problems. I ended up springing for the Epson R220. In the long run, it’s cheaper. (what do they charge these days for blank labels?) I know what you mean about the white areas that don’t get printed on. The Epson software allows you to change the area size that you need to print to, and once I set it, there were no more white areas. If a new Epson printer isn’t what you want to do, then try making the image that you want to print, a little larger so that it is slightly oversized for the label. This will eliminate the white areas.(it did for me).)

Talker

Talker wrote:

Hi Ric! I also used Neato for a while, and to be honest, I ended up getting an Epson R220 printer so that I can print directly on CDs and DVDs. The printer was on sale for $60, and the printable CDs and DVDs are almost the same price as the non-printable disks.

Thanks for jumpin in Talker.
When I was in Staples last week and was inquiring about printers (hadn’t bought one yet)
I asked about these direct CD print printers. I hadn’t heard of them before.
Once I learned they needed special CD’s to print I figured the printer + the CD’s would be too expensive overall. So I started looking at the regular printers and labels.

Back to the Neato labels, I stopped using them because they would eventually "bubble up" off the CDs. I started using those glue sticks to glue those CD labels to my CDs, even though those CD labels are adhesive backed.(I rubbed the glue stick on the top of the CD). This helped stop the "Bubbling" up of the labels, but didn’t do anything for DVDs. I would never use a label on a DVD, because they cause too many problems.

Hmmm.. this is very interesting.
For my application (I’m printing labels to use on demo CD recordings, to get music gigs at clubs etc.) the bubbling probably won’t be important because the clubs etc. will listen to the CD immediately and then probably throw/file them away.

So you’re saying that I should add glue stick to the CD top if I want to prevent bubbling on my CD’s? I thought DVD’s were the same as CD’s. Why doesn’t the glue stick work with them?

I ended up springing for the Epson R220. In the long
run, it’s cheaper. (what do they charge these days for blank labels?)

Interesting. I bought a pack of 40 sheets, 2 labels per sheet for $20 CAN.
Expensive, but the cheapest Staples was carrying.

If a new Epson printer isn’t what you want to do, then try making the image that you want to print, a little larger so that it is slightly oversized for the label. This will eliminate the white areas.(it did for me).)

Thanks for the tip!

Ric

On 8 Nov 2006 19:25:37 -0800, wrote:

Talker wrote:

Hi Ric! I also used Neato for a while, and to be honest, I ended up getting an Epson R220 printer so that I can print directly on CDs and DVDs. The printer was on sale for $60, and the printable CDs and DVDs are almost the same price as the non-printable disks.

Thanks for jumpin in Talker.
When I was in Staples last week and was inquiring about printers (hadn’t bought one yet)
I asked about these direct CD print printers. I hadn’t heard of them before.
Once I learned they needed special CD’s to print I figured the printer + the CD’s would be too expensive overall. So I started looking at the regular printers and labels.

You can buy the inkjet printable CDs for about 17¢ each at the supermedia store. I prefer the Verbatim Datalife Plus CDs for about 32¢ each, but that’s me.<g>

So you’re saying that I should add glue stick to the CD top if I want to prevent bubbling on my CD’s? I thought DVD’s were the same as CD’s. Why doesn’t the glue stick work with them?

It isn’t a problem with the glue, it’s the label itself. Applying a label to a DVD can cause it to stop working in a player. It has something to do with making the DVD unbalanced, so that the DVD player can’t read it.(DVDs are more critical in reading and writing because the data is more densely packed than it is on a CD, so anything that affects the balance of the DVD can affect the reading of it.) Using a printable DVD instead eliminates that problem.

I ended up springing for the Epson R220. In the long
run, it’s cheaper. (what do they charge these days for blank labels?)

Interesting. I bought a pack of 40 sheets, 2 labels per sheet for $20 CAN.
Expensive, but the cheapest Staples was carrying.

See, if you add the price of the labels to the cost of the CDs, then it’s costing you an additional 20¢ per CD. The cheapest CDs are about 13¢ each, so the total cost for the CD and label is about 33¢. If you buy the Ritek inkjet printable CDs from supermedia, they’re 17¢ each. Of course you have to add the cost of the ink to the price, but it’s still cheaper than using labels.(you’d also have to add the price of the ink to the label cost also.)
If you can still find the Epson printer for $60, it’s a really good buy. If it’s no longer on sale, the normal price is $100. Even at that price, it’s still cheaper in the long run over using labels

If a new Epson printer isn’t what you want to do, then try making the image that you want to print, a little larger so that it is slightly oversized for the label. This will eliminate the white areas.(it did for me).)

Thanks for the tip!

Ric

You’re welcome Ric! If you’d like to see what the R220 can do, I’d be more than happy to send you a CD. Let me know what musicians or group you like and I’ll see if I can get some photos to use for the CD.(oh, and let me know where to send it)

Talker