Best approach to start off with a transparent image from a scan or copy

[filoplume]

Hi,

It would be fantastic if the scanner on my printer would scan or copy an image and make it with a transparent background but I don't think it does.

If I doodled something or wrote something on a piece of white copy paper, is there a best way to start off making the image transparent in AD or APh? There would be lots of nooks and cranny's, especially if I wrote some text.

-fp

[firstdefence]

There is a filter in Affinity Photo called Erase White Paper, (Filters > Colours > Erase White Paper) so you could write in black ink on white paper, scan and use erase white paper to remove the white paper.

[Alfred]

In both AD and APh you can use either a Blend Mode or Blend Ranges to make the white areas transparent:

 

[filoplume]

14 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

There is a filter in Affinity Photo called Erase White Paper, (Filters > Colours > Erase White Paper) so you could write in black ink on white paper, scan and use erase white paper to remove the white paper.

Really?  Are you pulling my leg? 🙂  I guess this doesn't surprise me!  I will try both of your suggestions.  Another thought I have is to do a signature or something that would be in color (I just bought a color Epson Inkjet Printer/Scanner).

There must be fancy scanners that would have the option for a transparent background, right?

 

[firstdefence]

I don't know of any scanners that will remove a background/matte, so the only option is filters and or software dedicated to that process.

[v_kyr]

As @firstdefence I'am not aware of any maybe such very clever (AI based scanner hardware) which can do this on it's own here, aka removing and making possible complex backgrounds transparent. - Instead most better scanner supplied software will afterwards (after the main scanning procedure) offer to alter the result and perform some image manipulation tasks, though only few parts here of what APh or AD do offer!

[filoplume]

I guess if it was possible it would have been done already since that would be a great selling point!

 

[filoplume]

On 12/22/2021 at 10:22 AM, firstdefence said:

There is a filter in Affinity Photo called Erase White Paper, (Filters > Colours > Erase White Paper) so you could write in black ink on white paper, scan and use erase white paper to remove the white paper.

This really works!  I just sketched something on white paper and scanned it to a png and then used the filter in Affinity Photo and it worked incredibly well!

Thanks.

[firstdefence]

48 minutes ago, filoplume said:

This really works!  I just sketched something on white paper and scanned it to a png and then used the filter in Affinity Photo and it worked incredibly well!

Thanks.

Glad to help