27 May, 2013

Tutorial to create a transparent background in Photoshop

First if the layer is locked (padlock icon), unlock it by double-clicking on it.

  • Method 1:

    • select Magic Wand Tool (hit W)
    • click on white background you wish to remove
    • hit Del-key " (Entf or backspace) to delete it

  • Method 2:

    • This option is only available in version 7 or higher:
    • select "Quick Selection Tool" from magic wand menu (hit W)
    • click and drag around the area you wish to keep
    • copy the chosen area (Strg+C); click on eye icon to hide current layer
    • create a new {2nd} layer and paste clipboard into it (Strg+V)
    • delete original {1st} layer

  • Method 3:

    • click on "Select" è "color range" from drop-down menu. The cursor is already in sample mode (pipette) by default.
    • using the colour-picker, chose white area in picture to select the background including all white pixels in entire photo (PS: white area in "color range" sub-window shows selected pixels; black indicates unselected parts)
    • click on ok to release the eyedropper-tool and close "color range" sub-window. Then:
        • either hit Del-key (Entf or backspace) to delete selection
        • or click on "Select" è "Inverse" (Strg+Alt+I) to copy/paste area to new layer
    • if there are any more white bits still left to remove:
        • click on "Select" è "color range" from drop-down menu
        • chose "highlights" from drop-down menu inside "color range" sub-window
        • click on "ok" to close "color range" sub-window
        • use "Eraser" tool (E) to apply it to selection by clicking the rubber circle on highlighted area
        • hit Strg+D to deselect area

  • Method 4:

    • select "magnetic lasso tool" by right clicking on lasso tool then choosing the magnetic lasso tool from the popup menu
    • select the area you wish to keep by clicking left-mouse-button along the edge of the desired shape until you loop it back on itself
    • every left-mouse-button click creates a bullet point to remember the path. Hit Del-key (Entf or backspace) to delete previous bullet points; if wrongly placed
    • make sure last click is on top of original starting-point to complete area
    • choose "Inverse" (Strg+Alt+I) then hit Del-key (Entf or backspace) to delete selection

  • Using GIMP:

    • select: Layer » Transparency » Add Alpha Channel
    • delete background
    • export as PNG format

Additional notes:

  • Use Strg+D anytime to deselect chosen area.
  • Definition of "Anti-alias": when this option is selected, it will gradually smooth out the edges around the colored areas affected.
  • Definition of "Tolerance": The Tolerance setting determines how different a color can be from the sampled color. When using the eraser or wand tool, set the tolerance based on the sampled color. The lower, the stricter! A lower tolerance limits erasing to the sample color and colors similar to it. If you increase the tolerance, the eraser brush will begin erasing more than just the sampled colors.
  • Pictures containing transparent background can be saved in a variety of formats including GIF {poor quality}, TIFF, PNG {better quality}, SVG and PSD. Whereas JPG and BMP formats do not support transparency.
    • GIFs only support up to 256 colours. This is why your quality is degrading. There is no way around this.
    • The GIF format is not as good at compression as JPEG or PNG.
    • GIFs are quite large or badly compressed files.
    • PNG format is recommended for preserving transparency
    • use GIF to animate layers
  • If you find ugly edges around the image when you place it against a different background color, apply this solution.
Credit: Source

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