Magic/Background Eraser?

[xadz]

Hi! I'm a web designer just coming from Photoshop. I bought affinity because sometimes I need to work with AI files. For the past half hour I have been trying to remove a pesky white background from a pixel layer. Is there no magic eraser/background eraser equivilant? Do I really need to erase round each pixel by hand? If so, Affinity isn't going to work for me.
 
Thanks!

[Paul Bravery]

Could you upload the .ai original file, please? What version was it created in?

[xadz]

Hi Paul, it is not the illistrator file I am having problems with. Just wondering a quick way to remove backgrounds from pixel-based images? In Photoshop I would be able to select the magic eraser tool, click on the white background and it would disappear. Working with icons and graphics a lot this is something I have to frequently do with pixel based images.

[Paul Bravery]

Hi xadz,

I was hoping to see if I could alter the way the .ai file is imported, did you try it as a 'transparent' background?

Also, have you tried the flood select tool (similar to the magic wand in PS) to select the white background for clearing?

[MattP]

Hi xadz,

 

Take a look at this thread by Ronnie - he is doing basically the same thing you're trying to achieve. Just use the Select Sampled Colour menu item in Pixel Persona and follow from there... :)

 

Hope that helps,

Matt

[misc33]

EDIT:

I've just re read the comments here, and realised I missed the flood select tool - genius! does exactly what I wanted. Please disregard the original message.

 

I'm digging this topic up to ask if this is the only way to get a similar effect to the Photoshop magic eraser? I regularly need to remove the white background from a proof sheet of thumbnail images that also contain white. I want to remove the background around the images while leaving the white colour inside the images intact, so that I can place it on a coloured background without the background colour bleeding into the thumbnail images. In Photoshop this is a 1 click operation - I'm still looking for an easy way to do this in Affinity Designer or Photo that doesn't require me to create masks behind each image.

[firstdefence]

.ai files open in affinity and objects are separate from the background anyway, because .ai files are vectors not pixels. If its pixel based then Affinity Photo is a better option than Affinity Designer.

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, misc33 said:

I'm digging this topic up to ask if this is the only way to get a similar effect to the Photoshop magic eraser? I regularly need to remove the white background from a proof sheet of thumbnail images that also contain white. I want to remove the background around the images while leaving the white colour inside the images intact, so that I can place it on a coloured background without the background colour bleeding into the thumbnail images.

I may have misunderstood something, but assuming each thumbnail is on an individual pixel or image layer, try this:

 

1. Set the document to have a transparent background. There should now be a checkerboard pattern everywhere there is no thumbnail.

2. In Affinity Designer, add a rectangle layer snapped to the document size in the desired color & move it to the bottom of the layer stack. In Affinity Photo, do the same thing or use a  Fill layer.

 

Alternately, if you are exporting to a raster image format like PNG or JPG, in the Export > More window, just set the Matte color as desired. For this you do not need to set the document to have a transparent background.

[toltec]

10 hours ago, misc33 said:

EDIT:

I've just re read the comments here, and realised I missed the flood select tool - genius! does exactly what I wanted. Please disregard the original message.

 

I'm digging this topic up to ask if this is the only way to get a similar effect to the Photoshop magic eraser? I regularly need to remove the white background from a proof sheet of thumbnail images that also contain white. I want to remove the background around the images while leaving the white colour inside the images intact, so that I can place it on a coloured background without the background colour bleeding into the thumbnail images. In Photoshop this is a 1 click operation - I'm still looking for an easy way to do this in Affinity Designer or Photo that doesn't require me to create masks behind each image.

 

 

The Flood Erase Tool is pretty much a one click background removal solution. Just like magic 

 

 

 

[bowen192]

Tell me to buzz off, but in Affinity Photo (which is obviously the PS equivalent), you can just click Filters > Colours > Erase White Paper.

[carl123]

Erase White Paper will also erase white stuff you want to keep not just the white background

[MEB]

carl123,

You can use selections to work around that limitation (when possible).

[carl123]

The Flood Select Tool with Contiguous set on is usually the easier of the two options when you have white stuff you want to keep

[MEB]

Depends on the image. In certain cases it may have trouble with the antialiasing or selecting shadows. The Erase White Paper can be much more effective in these cases.

[misc33]

It's good to know there are other approaches to this, thanks everyone. I've attached the document I'm working with so you can see exactly what I was trying to do, and why the flood select tool magically solved the issue when setting the document to transparent background didn't work, and when Erase White Paper would have made things transparent that I wanted opaque. Once the background was removed, you can see that the image can now be easily placed onto a colour background with the internal whites intact.

 

[DM1]

In this instance, could you not have simply used a flood fill tool and selected desired colour to change background paper colour from white to whatever?

[Pšenda]

20 hours ago, MEB said:

Depends on the image. In certain cases it may have trouble with the antialiasing or selecting shadows. The Erase White Paper can be much more effective in these cases.

 

Erase White Paper works very fine, but only deletes the white background.

How does it work?, because sometimes it is necessary to remove the "non-white" background.

Would it not be possible to do a similar function with selecting background color to delete?

[Pšenda]

5 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

How does it work?

 

I know :-)

 

[Biobob]

I want to make a logo sit on a transparent background is there a simple way to do it as all the tools so far i have tried leave portions of white behind inside the words

[R C-R]

32 minutes ago, Biobob said:

I want to make a logo sit on a transparent background is there a simple way to do it as all the tools so far i have tried leave portions of white behind inside the words

Without knowing how you are creating your logo or which Affinity app you are using a detailed answer is not possible, but making sure your document is set to have a transparent background is a good place to start.