Making a black background transparent

[domrsim]

Can someone please help me before I throw my laptop out the window. I have a a png file of just some white words on a black background. I want to remove the black background and just have the  white words so when I overlay the image onto a T Shirt template like on Shopify, the text overlays but the black box is gone.

I was easily able to create black words and eliminate the white background using the rasterize function and then image trace. But I cannot get rid of the black background.

[Monika Gause]

You can just trace this.

Then Expand.

Then select the black elements and delete them.

[domrsim]

Can you walk me through how to select the black elements and delete them. I have the words traced.

[Monika Gause]

You have it traced with the black and white preset?

Now click on the Expand button.

Then either use the direct selection tool now or ungroup the artwork.

Select one of the black elements

Go to Select > Same > Fill color

Hit the delete key.

In case you have any issues with the terminology or need more explanation:

How to edit artwork in Illustrator using Image Trace

How to make selections in Illustrator

How to group and expand objects in Illustrator

[domrsim]

When I hit delete the entire image disappears. Words and the black background

[domrsim]

I think the problem is when I select expand, I get a blue trace around the font but also a blue trace around the entire black box. When I select ungroup, nothing happens. then when I complete the final steps you suggested, and hit delete, the entire image disappears. All I am trying to do is take the words, separate them from the black background, and put them on a transparent background.

[Monika Gause]

Open the layers panel and inspect the artwork and its hierarchy.

[chanaart]

You want to make sure you expand the trace. Select the black area only with the direct selection tool and than delete.

There is no Background by default in Illustrator.

[innovative_adventurer5D56]

if the text white on black background, you can outline the text, select the text and the background,

shape builder tool, drag with alt over the text area to remove it from background

[innovative_adventurer5D56]

Alt to remove the letter D from the black background ( black rectangle) in my example, so you will have the words transparent.

[domrsim]

Hi manal, looking at your example in the picture, I am trying to do the exact opposite. How do I keep the white letters where they are but have the transparent grid behind the white letters.

I can easily do this with black letters but not with white.

[innovative_adventurer5D56]

In my example, when i select both the black rectangle and the word, using Shape Builder tool, drag the mouse with alt, you will cut the letter from the black rectangle, it will be transparent.

[Sethf]

I think I may have figured this out for myself. 

When using image trace, it creates one large group. If you ungroup the image trace in the properties panel, you should be able to select the black area and delete it. 

[Scott Falkner]

I would open the file in Photoshop then Command-click on the RGB channel to make the image a selection. White parts of the image will be selected, black will not. I would not be sure that the black background is pure black, so some tweaking is in order.

Press Q to enter quickmask. This will turn the selection into a channel. What you want is for white-ish areas to be white (fully selected) and black-ish areas to be black (fully unselected), so use a Levels adjustment to make dark areas black and light areas white. Press Q again.

Now you have a selection where the text should be. Make a new layer and fill with white. Delete the original layer. Save this as a PSD or PNG. The black areas in the original image are now transparent.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted solution]

If you want a quick method and you have Photoshop, open the file and make it into a layer mask by copying it and pasting it into a New Layer Mask layer, then fill that layer with White (or any other colour you might want). Then export the file as either PSD or PNG to preserve the transparent background.  Like so: