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Participant
September 24, 2013
Question

How to cut out an image and save

  • September 24, 2013
  • 4 replies
  • 71890 views

Hello,

Help! Can anyone tell me step by step instructions on how to cut an image and leave the background behind, and save just the image with no background??

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

Participant
June 10, 2023

Oh my days. I have been searching for an answer to this qyery for weeks.  use delete,use cut, whatever I do it keeps the white around the image.  Now I find it's as simple as falling off a log (possibly simpler!)  Thank you sooo much.  It has saved my sanity!!

 

 

Greg_S.
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 9, 2022

@mikeh26609914, you have posted in a very old discussion that covers multiple subjects.  I suggest you start a new discussion describing the exact issue you are having problems with.

Community Manager
January 17, 2020

You can use Guided Edit "Replace background" under Special Edits for this.

Participating Frequently
September 24, 2013

*Use one of the selection tools to isolate the image from the photograph -

*Put the selection on it's own layer by using command j/control j while the marching ants are still active -

*Turn off the original layer (this will let you see your selection) and also allow you to save only the selection -

*Save as a png with a new name. 

In order to maintain transparency around the item, it must be saved as a png

When you save a selection as a jpg, the surrounding area fills in with white and you are back to square one.

suluciAuthor
Participant
September 24, 2013

Thanks for your reply; I'm afraid I wasn't clear on what I was trying to do. I place my sand dollars (which I paint) on white poster board to take the photo, which is grey when I upload the photos to the computer. So, I go to photo elements 11, and from "file", I click on "open" to retrieve the photo. Then I used the Selection Tool to isolate the image, and at that point I am not sure what to do next. I tried control + C, then went to File - New, but when I pressed Control + V, the image disappeared into a sea of white and grey blocks. I also tried using the magnetic lasso to capture the image, but again, I wasn't able to remove the grey background. As a note, I want to use the images on my website, but with no background color; just solid white.

Thanks again.

Inspiring
September 25, 2013

The white/grey boxes represent transparency. I assume the new file you created is much larger than the copied sanddollar, so when you pasted the sanddollar it created a new layer with that "sea of white and grey blocks".

Rather than doing File > New, try File > New From Clipboard. This creates a file the exact size of the copied sanddollar. The excess will be transparent as in this example:

If you save this as a jpg the transparency will be converted to white, which sounds like what you want. However if the background on your web page is other than white, then save the file in a format that preserves tranparency, such as gif or png. When you load the sanddollar into your web page, the transparency will be replaced by that background color.