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92 Chapter 4 Working with Sound, Movies, Graphics, and Other Objects
Removing the Background or Unwanted Elements from an Image
The Instant Alpha tool enables you to convert certain colors in an image to transparent.
This feature is useful for removing an unwanted background or other colors.
You’ll get the best results removing solid colors with clear boundaries around them. To
remove areas that are less distinct, select a smaller area and repeat the process.
To remove unwanted elements:
1 Select the image.
2 Click Alpha in the toolbar (or choose Format > Instant Alpha).
3 Click the color you want to make transparent, and then drag slowly over it.
As you drag, the selection grows to include the contiguous area that uses similar colors.
You can control how much of the image is selected by dragging less or more.
4 Repeat step 3 as many times as you like.
You can restore the parts removed from the image at any time. To revert to the original
image, choose Format > Remove Instant Alpha. To restore parts of the image removed
using Instant Alpha, choose Edit > Undo Instant Alpha until the parts have been
restored.
Dragging selects the
contiguous area that
uses colors similar to the
color you click.
Dragging more here...
...selects more of
the image.