Need to Remove Background and Sharpen Edges

[JohnBates]

hi Paint Shop Pro experts,


I'm trying to use PSP 9 to improve a JPG image which is a red and white star. The big problem is that it is on a square white background. Until I can change/remove the background color, I cant use it on a web page that has color F5F5F5 (whitesmoke) as the background.

It needs 2 improvements:
1) "pull" the star away from the background
2) sharpen the edges of the star

After looking into the Background Eraser feature - even though I promoted it to Full layer, still cant seem to do it.

Can someone give me some tips ?

Thanks, John
(I will post the image here if someone can tell me how to do that. A simple copy/paste didn't do anything)

 

[TonyGroves]

Luckily, FFFFFF and F5F5F5 are very close. If you just airbrush the white edges of the image with F5F5F5 (give it several passes with reduced opacity and a big brush size), it should blend in well with the page.

 

[JohnBates]

thanks TonyGroves.

But I've decided to place the Star against a dark background - so I'm going to need to lift it out or somehow remove the background.

john

 

[ChrisHunt]

Here's one way of doing it:

1) Download the "Eliminate White" filter (Google to find it) and put it in your PSP plugins directory (you need to do this before starting PSP).

2) Promote the image to become a new layer.

3) Colour the background layer to be the new background colour you want (use the flood fill tool with match mode = none)

4) Select the top layer (the one with the star on), and use the magic wand tool to select the off-white background (You may need to add several selections together by holding down the shift key).

5) Press [Delete] and it will remove the background

Now, if the edges of the star have been antialiased, i.e. edged in shades of pink to make the edges look smooth, you'll need to do an extra step...

6) Pick selections/modify/enlarge from the menu and enlarge the selection by a couple of pixels. Then use the filter installed in stage 1 to remove the white from the selection

7) Save the resulting image as a psp file, so you can change the background colour in the future if you want to. Use the gif and jpeg exporters to make images files for use online, picking whichever one comes out best/smallest.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[JohnBates]

thanks ChrisHunt,

It will be awhile before I can try out the steps you mentioned.

I'll post back with the results.
John