Cannot remove background

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
October 22, 2022
3 replies
1539 views

I'm relatively new to Illustrator. I can't figure out how to remove a black checkerboard background from an image I got on Adobe Stock as an .ai file. Attached is a png version of the image.

I've removed other types of backgrounds by exporting as a png with a transparent background, but that doesn't work with images like the attached.

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michelew83603738

Community Expert

Did you truly get vector art or is it a graphic image? If it is a vector, then you should be able to find the checkerboard somewhere in the layers panel or it might be that the transparency grid has been turned on (although that is not what it looks like), which can be changed under the View>Hide(Show) Transparency Grid.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

Short answer is that the creator has added a layer of checkerboard pattern on a separate layer behing everything so that the objects and any effects applied to them will show up. This is confusing to people because tradiotionally, a checkerboard pattern (e.g, in Photoshop) is a method to show transparency. If you look at the Layers palette in your stock art, you will likely see this layer and can delete it (or turn it off).

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Most likely these are squared shapes. You can find them in the layers panel.

There is a video about selection in my "Missing manual" tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVqhHu3CSohVhofyDlCIh3Z-Qk8qSmMqZ

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