PDA

View Full Version : Getting rid of the box



martin g. boekers
09-28-2008, 10:35 AM
I have tried many ways of getting the "box" around an image in Corel to be "clear" so that only the image shows up.

I have tried outlining the area and power clipping, but it seems that the image is not perfectly centered in the the outline.

I do work with Photoshop also so if there is a way to do it through there I can work with it.

Any help is appreciated!

Marty

Darren Null
09-28-2008, 10:49 AM
Try:
1) In photoshop, select and remove the background. Save as a TIF with transparency
2) Cropping 2 pixels round the edge of your image. Save as Tif.

martin g. boekers
09-28-2008, 10:43 PM
Thanks,

I appreciate the input!

Marty

Roy Nicholson
09-29-2008, 5:16 AM
I have occasional success with using bitmap colour mask in Corel... select the white and if it comes up in the top box your normally pretty right.


Regards


Roy N.

Doug Bergstrom
09-29-2008, 8:32 AM
The easiest way I know is to create a clipping mask in Photoshop. Save the image a s an EPS and place into whatever program you want for output.

David Takes
09-29-2008, 10:10 AM
Carl Sewell posted this information on a different forum. I also struggled with the dreaded white box. This process is simple and has worked like a charm.

In CorelDraw X3, the second pop-up window, after Exporting (File>Export) your CDR file as a GIF, will allow you to set the transparency. Click on the "Image Color", which is a radio button under "Transparency" (left side of the window). Next, click on the Eye Dropper icon on the right side of that window. Then click on the background color in the image window (top of that pop-up window).

See attached image.

http://engravingetc.org/David_T/upload/27205GIFExport.jpg

Doug Griffith
09-29-2008, 10:42 AM
In CorelDraw X3, the second pop-up window, after Exporting (File>Export) your CDR file as a GIF, will allow you to set the transparency. Click on the "Image Color", which is a radio button under "Transparency" (left side of the window). Next, click on the Eye Dropper icon on the right side of that window. Then click on the background color in the image window (top of that pop-up window).

One thing about this method is that GIFs use an indexed color table that is limited to 256 colors. That would be 256 levels of gray if grayscale. Even though images are output at 1 bit by the laser (black or white), 256 shades of gray may affect large areas with gradients. The larger the gradient, the further the spread of the 256 shades.

Saving as an EPS with a clipping mask is only easy if the image began life as vector which can then be imported back into the bitmap.

I would go with a TIF as Darren mentioned. Use levels to first clean up the white area.

Cheers,
Doug

David Takes
09-29-2008, 11:16 AM
Doug,

I didn't think of that because I don't engrave photographs, gradients, or bitmaps. I stick to the simple stuff. :)

Darren Null
09-29-2008, 11:51 AM
I was assuming that the input photo was a bitmap. For vectors, of course, you don't need to fire up photoshop...just ungroup everything and delete the background in corel, using the page edges to see the background if it's simple, or dropping it onto a coloured square if it's complex.

For some reason, with some images, the edge of the image is visible to the laser. So. The way round it is to delete the edges of the image. 2 pixels is usually enough, but if the image is really badly done and there's some feathering in there, you need more. That's the easy way.

A slightly more complicated way removes the background totally. The advantage of this is you can use this graphic as part of a larger, more complicated graphic. Sometimes it's worth doing and sometimes not: With a constant background colour, I usually use the magic wand tool in photoshop to select the background and delete it, after moving the image to a new unlocked layer:
Layer --> New layer --> New layer from background (or words to that effect)

Then I go in and delete any bits that would normally be showing the background.

Then I usually mask round the now-backgroundless object and crop. Firstly, removing the background may not have removed your artifacts round the edge...but you might not be able to see that. Secondly, TIF is a memory-munching format (particularly with transparency switched on) and there's no point in saving pixels you don't need.

Then I save it as a TIF with transparency, changing the dpi to 300 if necessary. TIF is the only file format I've never had any issues at all with, moving from photoshop to corel. JPG is a bit of a kludge, same with GIF and PNG. BMP is OK-isk, but I've found that somewhere along the way grey pixels get added to a supposedly 1-bit image. So TIF it is. I only use BMP if it's going through photograv.

My first answer was a bit terse. Hope that is a better explanation of what and why.

Doug Griffith
09-29-2008, 12:16 PM
For removing all artifacts from the background I do the following in Photoshop:

1) magic wand the background (tolerance 0-20, anti-alias on, contiguous).
2) save selection as an alpha channel.
3) in channels pallet, make only the new alpha channel active.
4) magic wand the silhouettes of the items you wish to keep (no anti-alias).
5) inverse selection.
6) activate the actual image and hit delete button.
7) delete alpha channel.

This method is quicker than it looks. Selective Color or Color Range is sometimes better than the wand.

Cheers,
Doug

Stephen Beckham
09-29-2008, 12:21 PM
Martin,

I edit my images in X3 paint (Click edit bitmap) - if you turn the image into an object and use the color transparency tool, then click in the area you want to remove, it will work quite well.

Several points to ponder.

When you do this, there will be some ghost 'dots' all over depending on the Tolerance level. You've got to play with it to clean it up sometimes depending on clean the image really is.

You cannot use the color transparency tool when it's a black and white image (photograv files). You can convert it to greyscale and get the transparency tool to work.

You cannot use the color transparency on some imported files until you convert them to an RGB or CMYK image.

You cannot use the color transparency until it's an object in a bitmap (several ways to do this).

You need to watch the rest of your image to see what other colors you are eating into when you click an area. Sometimes clicking an orange dot will take out some reds as well - check your tolerance...

martin g. boekers
09-29-2008, 8:29 PM
Thanks to all for the info! I haven't been able to upgrade to X3 yet.

Darren your Tiff method worked fine. Saved me a lot of headaches!

Thanks,

Marty

Roy Brewer
09-29-2008, 11:17 PM
I have tried many ways of getting the "box" around an image in Corel to be "clear" so that only the image shows up.Marty,
You're not giving us enough information. Describe your graphic object.
For instance, if it is a simple black & white bitmap (when selected, your status line will say "Monochrome bitmap"), then all you need to do is click on the X at the top of the colorbar; that will remove the "blasted white box" around your black copy.

If *looks* like black & white, but status bar says Grayscale or Color bitmap then change to Monochrome and see note above.

All above is directly in DRAW not PhotoPAINT or pshop.

Jim Good
10-01-2008, 10:59 AM
http://www.unleash.com/articles/whitebox/

Give this article a try.

Jim