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ImageSkill Software
Background Remover v 3.2
User’s Manual
Table of Contents
ImageSkill Background Remover
: User’s Manual
Introduction
Background Remover is a Photoshop-compatible plug-in for Windows designed by ImageSkill
Software that can work with both commercial software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop
Elements, Corel (Jasc) Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Digital Image Suite, and free software like
XnView.
The main purpose of the Background Remover is to extract some part of an image i.e. “the object” and remove other part that is unwanted, i.e. “the background”. It is capable of determining areas of pixels to be modified, areas of pixels to be partly modified and areas of pixels to remain unchanged. The partial modification means the restoration of the non-distinct edges of objects in partly transparent regions that is done by the subtracting the background color but leaving object
’s color there. It allows a user to blend or composite the cut-out object with a different background properly. The cutting objects may be used for collage, scrap-book and greeting card creation.
Using Background Remover you can get a result you really want that is unachievable with other masking programs like Adobe Magic Extractor, Corel Knock-Out, Microsoft Expression and so on.
And it takes very little time and efforts on your part.
You do not need mark an object and background accurately. Simply mark a few parts of them by special tools and get a desirable result nearly instantly. This result can be adjusted by one slider only but there are additional tools for its fine tuning. If necessary you can also use erase/restore brush for the manual correction of the background removing. To control the quality the result you can preview the extracted object against colored matte background.
Features at glance
Extraction of different object types (solid, lace-like and semi-transparent objects)
Very simple and intuitive user interface with only a few controls
Original high-speed extraction algorithms
Color unmixing for background replacing
Tools for debris removing and holes filling within received mask
Switching between original image and result one and preview the extracted object against a colored matte background for result checking.
Multilingual interface (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian,
Japanese, Chinese Simplified, and Chinese Traditional)
16-bit image support
System Requirements
Computer Pentium 400MHz
Operation System Win2000, Win2003, Win XP, Win NT3, Win NT4, Vista, Windows 7
Hard Drive
RAM you must have free space about 10 Mb
64Mb
Miscellaneous mouse or other pointing device
You must have suitable graphic host software (see below)
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ImageSkill Background Remover
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Registering ImageSkill Background Remover
You can order full version of this plug-in via ShareIt and RegNow services (either accept PayPal).
If you buy Background Remover through these services you receive user name and unlock key.
Please, enter their carefully without additional blanks. Use copy-paste method.
If you have any trouble with unlock key, write [email protected]
Registered users receive our email newsletter containing information about new product releases and updates, free downloads, articles, tips, and special offers and discounts.
Just now, we upgrade our products for registered customer free of charge.
Getting Technical Support
If you have any trouble, questions, feature requests or notes please contact us at the following addresses:
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://forum.imageskill.com
You can get the help you really need!
Examples
Source image Extracted image
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ImageSkill Background Remover
: User’s Manual
Getting Started
Installing and uninstalling
Run setup file. Installer's engine automatically selects an appropriate language during installation but still leaves a way for the user to choose language manually from the drop-list.
Then the program will ask you to close all other of the running applications. After accepting the terms of agreement the installer finds suitable graphic hosts. Choose one of them from a list. If you want to install plug-in in other folder, select item "Other path" and set folder for installation. In this case you must set "Plug-ins path" of your graphic host to setup folder.
Plug-in can work under the following graphics host properly
Adobe Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4
Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7, 8, 9
Corel Paint Shop Pro (Photo) X, X1,X2, X2 Ultimate
Corel Photo Paint 11,12, X4
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Xara Xtreme, Xara Xtreme Pro
Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006
Plug-in may be compatible with other graphic hosts as well.
In order to uninstall plug-in run uninstaller (file uninstall.exe) or use Add and Remove Programs item in the Control Panel of Start Menu.
User interface
Background Remover has 3 main sections (see description below):
A: View parameters
B: Toolbar
C:
Tool’s parameters
Pressing the
“OK”
button causes the returning to graphic host with applying object extracting.
Pressing the changing.
“Cancel”
button causes the returning to graphic host without source image
The
”Help”
button runs short HTML help.
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Progress bar and prompting line are placed at the bottom of the main window.
Undo
– undo last command
Redo
– redo last command
The number of undo/redo steps depends of physical computer’s memory.
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A. View
View source (nonprocessed) image
Use to preview the extracted objects against a colored matte background.
View result image on chess background
View mask
(grayscale image)
You can switch between source, processed images and mask at any time.
The last option allows you to place temporarily the extracted object against a chosen matt with uniform color. It makes easier to evaluate visually how this object will be looked like in a future composition on various backgrounds. Note, that this placement is only temporary one. After exit the Background Remover the main graphic editor places the result on chessboard again.
From left to right:
Source (original) image, Result of extraction, Result Mask, Result image on grey background.
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B. Toolbar
Zoom
– zoom in and out of the image when working with fine details
Pan
– let you scroll image in any direction
Mark colors for erasing
– use this tool for marking background (red marks)
Mark object
– use this tool for marking object
(green marks)
Manual Eraser
– use this brush to remove/restore some parts of the image manually
Delete all marks
– drop all marks
Magic Fill
– use this tool to remove background colors on the whole image
Magic Wand
– use this tool to cut out object
Mask Defringe zone
– use this tool to mark zone for color unmixing
Reset
– reverts all operations
Refine Mask
– use this tool to refine mask
Preferences
– choose this item to change preferences
The active tool is marked by black border.
Tool Name
Zoom
Description
Zoom in and out of the image when working with fine details. Click to zoom-in. Right-click to zoom out. Use mouse wheel to zoom. The title bar of the main window displays the zoom percentage.
Pan
Let you scroll image in any direction. Click and drag to scroll image in a desired direction.
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Mark colors for erasing
Mark object
Delete all marks
Use this tool for the marking background (red marks). Click and drag to mark background. Use Right-click to erase marks (both object’s and background’s marks are erased).
Use Ctrl button combination (press and hold Ctrl button) in order to switch to
Mark object
tool.
Use this tool for the marking object (green marks). Click and drag to mark object. Use Right-click to erase marks
( both object’s and background’s marks are erased). Use
Ctrl in order to switch to
Mark colors for erasing
tool.
Drop all marks and fix current result. After pressing this button you return to a previous active tool.
Manual Eraser
Click and drag for erase. Right-click and drag for unerase.
You can adjust brush size, opacity, hardness and step.
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Magic Wand
Magic Fill
This is the main image extraction tool. Use the
Magic
Wand
in order to extract connected object like people, things etc. Click and drag to erase background. Use Rightclick to restore object. You will process only connected local area, not whole image.
You can adjust the aggressiveness of the background elements removing by
Strength
parameter. The greater its value is set the more stronger background is removed.
If you process image where object are placed on textured background, check flag
Textured Background.
You can refine the resulting mask by contraction (if the result image has colored border around cut object). Set
Strength
parameter to a specific number of pixels that you want to contract the mask.
You can smooth transition between the object and the background by increasing
Feathering
parameter.
In order to fill holes in the resulting mask check the
Fill
Holes
flag. Then all areas marked as background will be saved in the result image; while other ones marked as object and debris will be go away.
This is super significant image extraction tool. Use the
Magic Fill
in order to extract disconnected objects like brunches of tree, jewelry etc. Click and drag to erase background. Use Right-click to restore object. You will affect on whole image. Pixels with colors that look like colors marked as background will be processed. To some of them the transparency value will be assigned. If object and background share some colors, check
Colors
flag.
Resolve
You can refine result mask by adjusting the parameter.
Contrast
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Refine Mask
Use this tool for the result mask refinement.
Use
Contract
slider to contract mask in order to avoid undesirable border around cut objects.
You can smooth transition between object and background by increasing
Feathering
parameter.
Use
Boundary Smoothing
slider to smooth mask's border.
Use
Contrast
slider to binarize mask.
Adjust
Fill Holes
and
Remove Speckle
in order to fill holes and remove debris in the result mask respectively.
Reset
Preferences
Revert all operations and reset image to the original one.
Using this item you can change preferences like chessboard size and color, selection annotation, and language.
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Working with Background Remover
All example commands and images shown below are valid for Adobe Photoshop CS3.
Source data
Plug-in can process RGB layer data with 8 or 16 bits/channel only. If your image has no layer you must create one at first. If you try to run ImageSkill Background Remover under flat (background) image data you receive the following message
If you work with palette image (like GIF, palette BMP etc) you must transform it to 24 bit color image at first.
Change language
The Background Remover 3.2 has ten-lingual interface (English, German, French, Italian,
Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Chinese Simplified, and Chinese Traditional). To change the language in the process of working with the plug-in you need to click on Preferences item and select “Change language”. Then choose an appropriate language from the drop-list and click
OK button. Close the application and restart it again to apply the new language.
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Starting Background Remover
Image mode
(RGB, 8 bit/channel)
Layer palette
(No layers, only background, image has not transparency property)
Run your graphic host.
Open an image (for example camera shot in
JPG graphic format).
This is background image in RGB graphic format 8-bit/channel. This image has no layer data yet. It means that image does not have transparency property
(socalled “Alpha channel”)
You can check it by
“Layers” window. (Use menu item “Window-
>Layers” or press shortkey F7).
In order to use Background Remover you must add “Alpha channel” in image data, i.e. to create layer from a flat image.
You can do it by using “
Layer->New->Layer from Background
” command.
ATTENTION:
DO NOT USE “Layer->Duplicate Layer” or “Layer->New->Layer via copy”
commands. Otherwise you receive 2 identical images. The lower one having name
“
Background
” is your source image, while the second one having name “
Layer 0
” is the duplicated layer (your image + alpha channel). Just after
Background Remover
processing
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(when you press OK button in
Background Remover
main dialog window), you will not see the result but the source image
(“
Background
”) only that is viewed through processed layer (“
Layer
0
”).
To avoid the feeling that
Background Remover
does nothing p
lease use “
Layer->New->Layer from Background
” command always.
Please control your data in “
Layer
” palette (hot key- F7). After applying the command “
Layer-
>New->Layer from Background
” it should show the following
In “
Layer
” palette you have only 1 layer with name “
Layer 0
”.
So, just now we have suitable data (RGB image with
8bit/chanall with additional
Alpha channel) and we can run Background Remover using
“Filter->ImageSkill-
>Background Remover 3”
command.
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Extracting objects
1. In order to extract object you must mark some "Object" and "Background’s" colors with green and red stripes respectively. This procedure is performed with the tools
“Mark object”
and
“Mark color for erasing”
.
2. After the marking process is completed you only need to click on
“Magic Wand”
or
”Magic Fill”
tool to fulfill the operation of the object keeping and background removing.
You can adjust the strength of the extraction by setting the relevant parameter of the chosen tool.
3. The color unmixing is done by
“
Mark defringe zone
”
tool.
4. You can clean received mask by debris removing and holes filling using
“
Mask Refine
”
tool.
5. After that you can use
“Manual Eraser”
tool to correct final mask if necessary.
6. You can check the result of the extraction, using preview the extracted object against colored matte background, and see the result mask as well.
Mark background and object colors using “
Mark object
” and “
Mark colors for erasing
” tools.
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If you make wrong marks you can erase them by right-click and drag. You can switch between thes e tools by pressing “
Ctrl
” button. Then choose “
Magic Wand
” tool for flowers extracting.
Click and drag mouse - you will mark background (red points) and erase it at the same time.
If you do something wrong you can always revert to the previous operation by pressing Undo button. Making right-click and drag you can restore object’s part and mark it as object (green points).
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You can adjust erasing strength by
Strength
control. Possibly you have to make a few strokes in order to succeed.
Then select
Magic Fill
tool and click to erase background in the vase.
If necessary, choose
Manual Eraser
for the final tuning.
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You can control mask (or see the result in chrome key) using different view option (four buttons below “
Help
” button).
When you finish, press OK and return to CS3.
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Semi-Transparent Object Extracting
Use this tutorial to learn how to extract a semi-transparent object (girl with flying hair) from a textured background.
Source image
Create layer form background image as described above and run Background Remover.
Select
Mark Object
tool and mark object (green curve).
Select
Mark color for erasing
tool and mark background (red curve).
Select Magic Wand tool and extract portrait.
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Choose
Mark Defringe zone
tool and mark girl's hair.
After marking the process of color unmixing is run.
You can see that colors are unmixed properly and girl's hair look naturally.
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You can check the result by placing it against colored matted background.
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ImageSkill Background Remover
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Lace-like Object Extracting
Use this tutorial to learn how to extract a lace-like object (jewelry, branch of tree etc).
Source image
Create layer form background image as described above and run Background Remover.
Select
Mark Object
tool and mark object (green curve).
Select
Magic Fill
tool and mark background (red curve). Make a mouse click to launch extraction.
Using
Magic Fill
tool you can set colors for removing by left mouse click and set colors for keeping by right mouse click. Whole image is processed, so you can extract lace-like object by marking object and background colors. Pixel
’s colors looking like a marked background colors will be processed. To all of these pixels some transparency value will be assigned.
If object and background share some colors, check “
Resolve Color
” flag.
You can refine the resulting mask by adjusting the
Contrast
parameter.
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You can check the result by placing it against colored matted background.
The final mask tuning can be done using
Mask Refine
tool.
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FAQ and Troubleshooting
I can not run Background Remover or Background Remover is grey out in graphic host
’s effect menu.
Graphic hosts disable the plug-in if the current image is not suitable for use with Background
Remover. Image must be in RGB format with 8 or 16 bit/channel and must have a layer (i.e. image must have 4 channels: R, G, B, and Alpha). If image has CMYK, LAB, Grayscale or something other than RGB format, you have to convert it to RGB. If image has no layer you have to create it at first
.
What does happen if my image already has transparent area?
When you process image with transparent areas, the final transparency in such pixels will be not less than source transparency, i.e. plug-in does not increase alpha value in transparent areas.
How does plug-in process selection?
The Background Remover affects to selected area only. The unselected area is still unchanged.
The unselected area is shown with red semi-transparent color in main plug-in window. Plug-in deals with the bounding box selection.
Image with selection The unselected area is filled by semi-transparent red color
Result of the processing
NOTE:
If you did not find answer on your questions, write your questions to [email protected]
or send them to support forum http://forum.imageskill.com
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Table of contents
- 2 Features at glance
- 2 System Requirements
- 3 Registering ImageSkill Background Remover
- 3 Getting Technical Support
- 3 Examples
- 4 Installing and uninstalling
- 5 User interface
- 7 A. View
- 8 B. Toolbar
- 12 Source data
- 12 Change language
- 13 Starting Background Remover
- 15 Extracting objects
- 19 Semi-Transparent Object Extracting
- 22 Lace-like Object Extracting
- 24 I can not run Background Remover or Background Remover is grey out in graphic host’s effect menu.
- 24 What does happen if my image already has transparent area?
- 24 How does plug-in process selection?