Please Read first 
Notes:
If you own  (or are considering purchasing) the pcCrafter.com "Deluxe" Hugbug Browser, you may be using the feature of "Holding down your keyboard shift key and dragging" to any of these above listed programs to remove the white surrounding the graphics. 
Sometimes this feature or function, may remove all the white within a graphic that matches the same color of white that surrounds it. 
You can choose to either use the options I list below for removing the white " instead" of the browser feature, or use free hand selection tools of your individual programs to draw in a section the area that has the white removed and "fill that drawn area" with the color white using the eyedropper to pick up the same white within the graphic that you want to use as a fill option. 

If you do not own the Deluxe browser or choose not to use the drag, while holding down the shift key option, you can use the steps listed below to remove the white.
Some graphics may need to have free hand "black lines" drawn in to surround certain areas so that they are not selected, when using Magic Wand tools. You may also use Paint and Airbrush tools in some of these programs to fill in areas with colors or patterns. 

These instructions are meant only to show "How "I" Remove the White"
You may find easier methods and or tools within the programs you own yourself.

Digital Image Pro  |  Photoshop Elements  |  Paint Shop Pro

---

Digital Image Pro
**note: I own and  am using DIP version 10 for these screen shots
Also note: in Spring 2007, Microsoft discontinued manufacture of their Digital Image line
of software. The last edition made was the Anniversary Edition which is nearly identical to
Digital Image Suite 2006. The magic wand method of removing the white from surrounding JPG
graphics works the same in all editions of Digital Image. You may be able to still purchase 
Digital Image on online sites such as EBAY.

This first screen illustrates what might occur if  using the feature
of the Deluxe Browser, of holding down your keyboard shift key and 
dragging to your software workspace and layering against a darker 
background and/or pattern.

Now using the 2 step method of bringing graphic in, either by dragging from
your browser, to the files tray and then to your graphic, or dragging from a folder
or opening a graphic from a folder. Then selecting ALL White
areas of the graphic with your Magic Wand tool that you want gone,
and pressing your keyboard "Delete" key.
Hold down your keyboard "shift" key as you select more than one area
or in the Magic Wand selection box choose the "+" plus button.
If your magic wand selects too much white or white from the graphic
then lower the tolerance number in the Magic Wand selection box.
I have found that a tolerance level of between 7-10 works best for most
graphics.

Drag graphic from your "Files" tray to the background, position and or resize
over the background, select the Magic Wand tool and make sure you have
selected the graphic you want to remove the white from on the "Stack" 
**note the Stack of all files/graphics used in any compilation is usually to 
the right of your workspace screen  - each time you want to work on any particular image or part of your compilation - you must click on or select the graphic
or part you will be working on, from the "Stack".
Tip: You can also move/drag items up or down in the stack to position in front or
behind other graphics in the stack, with your mouse.

Select all areas you want the white removed from with your magic wand tool.
To set the tolerance level of your magic wand, click on the Word "Selection" in the tool area - a Magic Wand box will come up and a Tolerance setting number will be shown, setting for removing most white areas should be 10 or less. The higher the setting of the Magic Wand, the more pixels or shading of specific colors will be chosen.

Note also: that if there are any broken lines in a graphic, the magic wand will go through those lines and select the white areas inside those areas. You may  have to free hand draw a line in those spots and group the line(s) and the graphic together - and then use the magic wand to select the white areas outside or surrounding the graphic. Or draw shapes surrounding those areas, fill with white, and place behind the graphic. Use the Format menu option of Move object to back.

Once all areas have been selected, press your 
computer keyboard "Delete" Key

If you would like to add some white to this picture, 
you can use your "free-hand select" tool
and draw in an area on the "background" graphic to fill in to surround the "foreground" graphic.

I  brought another image from my browser to file tray and then dragged from tray
to the image of kids building snowman against the background, 
and used the magic wand and deleted the white surrounding
the image "I Love Winter" and resized and positioned it on the background.

I can save this image now as a new image, give it a new name and save it as a GIF file format or as a PNG file format, both of which support transparency. 
DO NOT save images that have the WHITE GONE as JPG images or they will no longer be transparent.
The advantage of saving images in Digital Image Pro as a .png format, is that when opening again at any point, each of the graphics or parts I used to assemble this
compilation will be there and I would be able to work on and/or make any changes to
this image. I can also copy the png compilation, make changes, and save the original
image compilation as it was, but use some or all of the graphics to create a new image compilation and save with a new name, and not alter my original picture.

If you find that your graphic still has some white around the edges of the graphic, what I usually do - is use 
the Effects menu >> Choose EDGES >> Choose SOFT and on the next page you will see a slider tool, I set it at
1 or 2 and that cleans up most edges for me quite nicely.

Also if the graphic has very fine lines such as the antenna of butterflys >> you may have to lower the tolerance of the magic wand to 5 or less, or sometimes I draw around just such items in the graphic, copy it, paste it back, and I just work on that smaller piece using the Transparncy Brush tool and just work away to brush out the white, and leave the smaller black lines intact. OR you can use the Edge Finder tool, ZOOM in magnifying the graphic portion as much as possible and draw around those small areas and delete the white from those special sections that way.

For Black and White fine writing I have found that the Eraser Genuine plugin from Medhi Plugins to do an excellent job for removing the white and leaving the black all intact
Download and install to your Plugins Folder of Digital Image - to use Go to Effects menu, choose 
http://www.mehdiplugins.com/

Createable Graphics used in above screen shots 
Kids building snowman from Christmas Countdown by Carolee Jones
Background and I Love Winter from Cold Hands Warm Heart by Laurie Furnell

Links to useful Digital Image Pro tutorials

DIP Divas - site includes links to tutorials and also Freebies for DIP owners
http://dipdivas.blogspot.com

Kim Lizzy's Tutorials
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~kimlizzy/

MarysGraphics.com **No I am NOT this Mary**
http://www.marysgraphics.com/picit.html

Graphics Software.about.com
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/digitalimagepro/

Scrapbook Bytes
http://scrapbook-bytes.com/cgi-script/tutorials/publish/cat_index_25.shtml

Thena Smith our wonderful pcCrafter Poet, 
writes a monthly column for pcCrafter on Digital Scrapbooking
and uses Digital Image Pro to create all of her layouts -
read monthly and become inspired!!
http://www.pccrafter.com/community/August05/thena.aspx
Thena's Archived articles
http://www.pccrafter.com/community/thenaarchive.aspx
**find other pcCrafter articles, newsletters, etc.
http://www.pccrafter.com/community/articlesprojects.aspx

How "I" fill simple TEMPLATES using Digital Image
http://www.teas2dine4.com/hugbees/filltempwdip10html

---

Digital Image Pro  |  Photoshop Elements  |  Paint Shop Pro

---

Photoshop Elements - I am using version  2 in these screen shots, 
currently Photoshop Elements is up to version
6, these steps should work in all editions.
**steps should also work in Photoshop 7

---

2 Step method

1. I open grpahic from a location on my computer or drag graphic from my Hugbug Deluxe Browser or if you have free lite version drag graphic from that browser.

2. Go to Layer Menu, and select New >> Layer from Background. Name the layer anything you want or leave as the default name that the program puts in for you.

3. Using the Magic Wand, select ALL areas surrounding the graphic  that you want the White gone from.

4. Once all areas have been selected (you will see marching ants surrounding the areas chosen) You can press or hit your DELETE KEY on Your computer keyboard,
and the white will be deleted from the graphic.

The following are some screen shots of the process I use to remove the white:
Note the following screen shots are using an image from the pcCrafter.com
Mitzi the Duck creatable.

Open graphic from a folder/location  on your computer
or drag the graphic to workspace from your Hugbug browser
(free lite version or the pay for Deluxe Browser)
This screen is from my Hugbug Deluxe Browser

When graphic is on your workspace:
Go to Layer Menu 
Choose >> New  then >> Layer from Background.
Name this new layer any name or Layer 1 or accept default name that program
has chosen.

Select the Magic Wand tool from the tool palette
and set Tolerance level to 10 **if magic wand selects too much white, lower the 
tolerance.
Then select all areas of the graphic that you want the white gone from, be sure
to select all small areas of the graphic. You may hold down your shift key to
select multiple areas as you select various parts of the graphic.

Once all areas have been selected - press your Delete Key on your
Computer Keyboard to delete all the areas chosen by the magic wand

Resulting image should have the gray/white checkerboard patterned background.
This background is the "transparent" background that you want to have.

 

I can save this image now as a new image, give it a new name and save it as a GIF file format or as a PNG file format, both of which support transparency. 
DO NOT save images that have the WHITE GONE as JPG images or they will no longer be transparent.

Links to useful Photoshop Elements tutorials

From Adobe.com
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 online course
Excerpt quoted from website
For a limited time, educators may view for free Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0: Introduction, an engaging, interactive online course that teaches the basics of using this image-editing software. This course shows you how to modify and enhance images and create composite images, then print your images or save them in a Web gallery.
http://www.adobe.com/education/training/photoshop_elements/main.html

Jay Arraich’s Photoshop Elements Tips
http://www.arraich.com/elements/psE_intro.htm

Photoshop Roadmap.com
http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-tutorials/Photoshop-Elements-tutorials
http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-tutorials/Photoshop-Elements-tutorials/Most-popular/1/
GraphicsSoftware
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/Photoshop_Elements_Tutorials_and_User_Resources.htm
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselementstutorials/Tutorials_for_Essential_Techniques_in_Photoshop_Elements.htm
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/

Photoshop Elements Users
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/

Janee's PS Tutorials
http://myjanee.home.insightbb.com/tutorialselements.htm

Photoshop Support
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/elements/tutorials.html

Photoshop Elements for the web - the basics
http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/KSD/IT/wwwdev/photoshop/

Scrapbook Bytes
http://scrapbook-bytes.com/cgi-script/tutorials/publish/cat_index_21.shtml

---

Digital Image Pro  |  Photoshop Elements  |  Paint Shop Pro

---

Paint Shop Pro 
screen shots are from version 8 of psp
**Download a Free trial of the latest verson of PSP from Corel.com

1. Open your image in PSP
Have settings set at RGB value 2 , and Tolerance at about 10 and Feather at Zero.
Then using the Layers menu - Choose Promote background, which will make your
image a Raster Layer.

2. Hold down your shift key and using the magic wand tool, click
in all areas that you want the white out or to be transparent.
and once you see the marching ants surrounding all the areas you want gone,
simply press your keyboard Delete key and the white should be gone.

 

3. You can at this point name and save your image as either a pspimage, 
a png image or a gif image, each support transparency.

But I would suggest that you at this point - go to the selection menu and choose
to invert your magic wand selection area. This will make the marching ants surround
just the image itself. Click on Copy and then Paste as a new image. This will give
you a new image on its own - this is the image I would name and save to a location on
your computer that you will remember and associate with such images. Never change the names 
of the original graphics or change the original format from jpg on an original graphic. 
If you own the Hugbug Deluxe payfor Browser - it has a search feature for searching pcCrafter
installed files - if you change names or formats from their original names your search feature will not find them. 

You also can choose from the File menu to export this image as a "tube" and have available in your Tubes selections. Please remember you can't tube pcCrafter images and share on the internet. They can only be used in compliance with the copyright terms of use that pcCrafter rules allow.

Creatable used is DAISY Bears by Lori Gardner

---

CarolynB sent me the  "White-out" script mentioned in a now long gone pcCrafter forum thread, and I downloaded the whiteout script to my "trusted scripts" folder in my paint shop pro main folder.
**Update Dec. 2006 - CarolynB has not posted on the pcCrafter message forums in quite a long time,
so I do not know if she is still reading or responding to email requests for the whiteout script.

I was able Select all areas of graphic with magic wand, then
click on Run Script and chose the White-out script
and choose open or run,  and the white is  gone.

To layer on a background or another image,
copy the transparent image and
from Edit menu, choose to paste as new Layer

Image of Animal stack is from 
Star Spangled Summer 2  by Laurie Furnell

Related tutorial:
Using Background Eraser tool
http://moonsdesigns.com/tutorials/psp8/bge.html

-----------------------------------------------------
Here are links with information about other PSP scripts

PSP scripts resources – most are free to download
All  of these scripts go in your Scripts-Restricted folder.

http://www.sheilsoft.com/psp/info.htm
http://www.sheilsoft.com/psp.htm

http://www.digitalartresources.com/Scripting/text.htm

http://users.adelphia.net/~suzshook/8scripts.htm

---

Links to tutorials for PSP

Corel's Support Page links
Tutorials
http://www.corel.com/

PSP Tutorial Links
http://www.psplinks.com/

Grafx Design
http://www.grafx-design.com/psp_tut.html

Scrapbook Bytes
http://scrapbook-bytes.com/cgi-script/tutorials/publish/cat_index_24.shtml

Designs by Joy
http://www.designsbyjoy.net/PSPTutorials1/

Lori's Web Graphics Paint Shop Pro tutorials
http://loriweb.pair.com/howto.shtml

LoadBoy
http://www.loadboy.com/

---

FREE SOFTWARE PROGRAMS to consider -
some of these programs have a Magic Wand tool 

Free Software for photo or graphic editing 
Links to various programs / listings – these listing may also link to individual programs pages I have posted below 
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbasedwin/tp/freephotoedw.htm 
 
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/imagephotoediting.shtml 
 
http://www.digicamhelp.com/processing-photos/basic-editing/free-software.php 
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Gimp ** often touted as similar to Adobe’s Photoshop 
http://www.gimp.org/ 

Features 
http://www.gimp.org/features/ 

FAQ 
http://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html 

Tutorials 
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/ 

GIMP User Group 
http://gug.sunsite.dk/ 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Paint.net 
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html 
Features 
http://www.getpaint.net/features.html 
Forum 
http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/index.php 

Quoted from this thread
http://messageboard.pccrafter.com/tm.aspx?m=196103

I did download Paint.net and installed it to give it a 20 minute test drive, then I Deleted it. 
I already own and use Microsofts Digital Image Pro 10, which is my Favorite program to create with. And I own Adobe's Photoshop Elements 2 & Jasc's/Corels PaintShopPro 8. 
So while I personally don't need another program, I was interested in the "magic wand" portion of this PaintNet program. 

I was able to drag and drop a graphic from my Deluxe Browser - I didn't hold down my shift key - as I wanted to just remove the white "surrounding" a graphic not the white inside it. 
I tried it on a couple of graphics - a Frog from Darby & Friends, and a Mitzi the Duck, graphic (which is a good test, for removing the white just around the graphic) 

Here are some screen shots & notes of what I did - with removing the white, by selecting areas I wanted gone with the magic wand tool, and then pressing my computer keyboards "Delete" key (I had to pick one area at a time, for the Mitzi graphic) 

**After removing the white surrounding the Frog graphic, I chose areas of it with the magic wand and changed the colors**. 
1.  
2. 

 
3. 
 
4. 
You can change the tolerance on the magic wand using this program. 
The higher the magic wand tolerance number, the more of an area of the same or similar colored pixels will be chosen by the magic wand. 

---

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER:
Make sure your computer can handle the programs you download, read about requirements, etc. Graphic editors can and may be RAM Memory hogs, and if you don't have a minimum of 1 gig of RAM Memory on your system, you may experience difficulty/slowdowns and even crashes of some software programs : if you are working with several of the large PNG files that pcCrafter and other graphics sites offers (and remember with the PNG Files - you don't have to remove the WHITE - they are ready to go - they are already transparent), or large digital camera images, or doing lots of layering, applying effects or filters - each of which needs RAM Memory to process these things efficiently and quickly. 
RAM Memory is Different than Hard Drive or External drive "SPACE" you may have lots of SPACE on your computer or external drives for downloading and installing a program - but its MEMORY that your programs use to process the steps within that software. 
Older computers usually had 256 or 512K of RAM memory - for many graphics editors that is NOT enough Memory processing power to work efficiently with todays digital photos or with the large PNG files of graphics offered at many sites. 1 gig or more is best for graphics editors to run efficiently - so if your computer doesn't have at least 1 gig - see if its possible to add RAM Memory to your computer - with RAM Memory more is always better. Your computer should be running the most current version of your operating system WINDOWS XP and/or VISTA with all updates installed. Plus your computer should have a fairly fast processor. 

Download and try out one program at a time. If using a Trial period, be sure to use each and every day of your trial time. Print out online tutorials and have them in front of you as you go through the steps and check them off as you follow along. Keep them for future reference. Press all the buttons, use all the features, have fun and explore the programs.

If you find you just don't like a particular program - UN-INSTALL it before you download and try another one. 

Some programs have high learning curves, but all are certainly learn-able. The most popular and widely used graphic editors - had folks who were all "beginners" when they first started with them.
So don't give up too soon - there's lots of tutorials and helpful forums for users of most of the programs out there.

P/S I can't recommend one program over another, I offer this info for informational purposes only. Personally I use Microsofts Digital Image Suite 2006 most of the time, but I  also own PSE 4 & 5, and Jasc's Paintshop Pro 8. 

Many of the Digital Scrapbook sites online have tutorials for the main stream graphics editing programs, but I have seen some that have tuts using GIMP and/or other programs now becoming popular.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

to >> top of page
To the >>  PC Crafter Community Forums >>
General Chat
Instruction Junction

Find Templates for your crafting - Resources Online
http://www.teas2dine4.com/4templatelinks.html

Sayings, Quotes,  Poems, Verses and much more for finding
the "Write" words for all your crafting projects
http://www.teas2dine4.com/4sayingsnquotes.html

Find all the Fonts you'll want to use to "write" on your craft projects
http://www.teas2dine4.com/4fontslinks.html

---

Digital Image Pro  |  Photoshop Elements  |  Paint Shop Pro
 

 
               page created by LibMary  July 2005, updated summer 2008