Finding and inserting Objects in Illustrator

[Grant Woodley]

Hi, sorry if this a simple question but I am new to using Illustrator.

We are trying, as a family project, to make a personalised board game (Clue) using Illustrator. For the weapon playing cards I have been taking photos of the object, for example a knife, importing them into Photoshop, deleteing the background, and then importing them into illustrator where I can place the object with different backgrounds, boarders etc. But some of the objects, I need, I want to download from the internet. When I do, even though they have been tagged as "for Illustrator" they still have the background. Am I missing something, do i have to use special key words???

To clarify here, I am trying to get "ONLY" the object, I do not want the background. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks heaps.

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Grant,

PNGs (.png) can be without background, never JPEGs (.jpg).

You can look for a few things for PNGs.

A PNG without background will appear as if it has a solid background in one colour such as white. Even the faintest shadow(s) will rule out transparency.

A PNG or a JPEG that actually has such a one colour solid background can easily be rid of it in PS (Photoshop). Depending on the contrast between objects and background, it can be easy to move faint shadows.

In any case, including your own photos (which are JPEGs of course), be aware that the (soft) transitions at the edges making the object appear real will be literally coloured by the background; so best to create/choose images with backgrounds that are neutral in colour round the object (relative to the colour of the object) to avoid visible discolouring.

One way to avoid such visible discolouring, and also to get a clean outer shape, can be to draw the boundary (maybe best done in AI), then create a clipping set (with the drawn path as the Clipping Path), then create a PNG with transparency from that.

[Grant Woodley]

Thanks Jacob. So I should only choose .png files not .jpg
On the download sites I find "File type: eps, jpg", so your saying these will always include the background?

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Probably, Scott; most likely the EPS just consists of the JPEG, unless it is vector artwork that is then also given as JPEG (instead of PNG). But you can open the EPS and see.

[Grant Woodley]

Thanks Jacob.

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, Grant.