Jean LeLoup & Bob Ponterio
SUNY Cortland © 2017 |
Creating Clip Art
Try to keep the background a single color. This can make future manipulations easier. Slight variations in color may remain unnoticed. You may wish to use the Fill tool to fill the entire background with a single color or you may prefer to select the clip art object without the background, copy the object, make a New image with a selected background color, then paste the clip art into the new image.
Tip
To more easily select an object without the background, select the background using the Magic Wand tool, then invert the selection. |
If your image is a background (this is the case for most flat images), you can also double click on the lock symbol for the layer to change it to Layer 0. You can also right-click on the layer and select "Layer from Background. n.b. If these options are not listed, you might need to Flatten Image first.
Now tell the computer which part of your image should be transparent
by selecting the portion you wish to make transparent and cutting it from your image. This
should change the background to a checkerboard pattern.
(n.b. The magic wand tool, the various lasso tools, the magnetic eraser tool can all help here.)
Another example... |
Save as a GIF or PNG, but be sure to check Transparency if you see that option
Save for Web is another Save option that limits formats to those available for the web, such as GIF and PNG. JPG cannot do transparency. You can select File / Save for Web, check the transparency box, and save. However, this is net required since Save as a GIF or PNG should also work.
Dialog box for GIF
You could also select the part of an image that you want, copy, then create a new image from the clipboard. Either way will work.
It is also possible to create transparent GIF or PNG files using shareware programs such as LViewPro or Paint Shop Pro . Note that Paint Shop Pro has been bought by Corel, but the basic ideas behind the tutorials are valid in other image editors. On IOS and Android, you could try the free app Photoshop Mix.
For more information take a look at some great tutorials: Transparent GIFs from Wise-Women tutorials, The Photoshop Roadmap, How to Create a Transparent GIF in Photoshop, Transparent PNG in Photoshop .
Video tutorial: How to Make a Transparent PNG. Make transparent PNGs for free (without Photoshop).
Photoshop CS6 and Creative Cloud remove background from image
How to Remove Anything from a Photo in Photoshop
Cartoons can be a great source of context for language. Here is an example of using an edited GIF image to use a well known catroon as the basis for generating new, original target language.
After the original text has been removed, the student can be creative. Of course, this can be done with a pencil and paper as well.
With some additional tricks, you might even be able to insert new text online.
<textarea name="comictext" cols="20" rows="3" style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size:13pt" ></textarea>