Inkscape

How do I remove the background surrounding an object in an existing picture?

Asked by oscar wilkes

I have about 20 drawings where each drawing has a central object.. I would like to remove the background surrounding th central character and move the central object to another file where I could copy it onto heat transfer paper and transfer the image onto different forms of media, such as t-shirts. Can you show me the process for doing this?

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Marc Stewart
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Best Marc Stewart (marc.stewart) said : 		#1

So many choices. And which one you choose will depend on the exact nature both of your image and what you want to end up with.

If you have a vector image already, you should just be able to delete the background elements (or move them to a hidden layer if you might need them again), leaving the central character as the only remaining element.

If you have a bitmap image (e.g. a JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, etc.) and want to keep it that way, then you may find a bitmap editor, such as the GIMP, to be the more appropriate tool for the job, though you can certainly mask out the background with Inkscape.
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Clip.html

If you have a bitmap image and want to end up with a vector image for easy resizing, then, again, you have a few choices to make.

You'll have the most control by importing the image into Inkscape, manually tracing over the central character, and then deleting/hiding the original image.

You can sometimes save time, however, by using the Trace Bitmap function (in the Path menu), though you'll probably still need to make some manual alterations to finish off.
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Trace.html

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oscar wilkes (oscar-forrestartwork) said : 		#2

Thank you very much for leading me in the right direction. I found that loading my jpeg drawings into the gimp program and altering them there was the easiest way. I would like to know how to use inkscape for the same purpose. If you would show that one I would be most appreciative.