ImageSkill Software

Background Remover v 3.2

Users Manual
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 2
Features at glance ..................................................................................................................... 2
System Requirements ............................................................................................................... 2
Registering ImageSkill Background Remover ............................................................................ 3
Getting Technical Support ......................................................................................................... 3
Examples .................................................................................................................................. 3
Getting Started .............................................................................................................................. 4
Installing and uninstalling........................................................................................................... 4
User interface ............................................................................................................................ 5
A. View .................................................................................................................................. 7
B. Toolbar .............................................................................................................................. 8
Working with Background Remover ............................................................................................ 12
Source data ............................................................................................................................. 12
Change language .................................................................................................................... 12
Starting Background Remover ................................................................................................. 13
Extracting objects .................................................................................................................... 15
Semi-Transparent Object Extracting ........................................................................................ 19
Lace-like Object Extracting ...................................................................................................... 22
FAQ and Troubleshooting ........................................................................................................... 24
I can not run Background Remover or Background Remover is grey out in graphic hosts effect
menu. ...................................................................................................................................... 24
What does happen if my image already has transparent area? ............................................... 24
How does plug-in process selection? ...................................................................................... 24

ImageSkill Background Remover: Users 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 objects
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

you must have free space about 10 Mb

RAM

64Mb

Miscellaneous

mouse or other pointing device

You must have suitable graphic host software (see below)

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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

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Extracted image

ImageSkill Background Remover: Users 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: Tools parameters
Pressing the OK button causes the returning to graphic host with applying object extracting.
Pressing the Cancel button causes the returning to graphic host without source image
changing.
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

Redo redo last

command

command

The number of undo/redo steps depends of physical computers memory.

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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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

Pan let you scroll image

of the image when

working with fine details

in any direction

Mark object use this

Mark colors for erasing

tool for marking object

(green marks)

use this tool for marking

background (red marks)

Delete all marks drop

Manual Eraser use this

all marks

brush to remove/restore
some parts of the image
manually

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

Pan

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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.
Let you scroll image in any direction. Click and drag to
scroll image in a desired direction.

ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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 objects and backgrounds 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 objects and backgrounds 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

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.

Magic Fill

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 Resolve
Colors flag.
You can refine result mask by adjusting the Contrast
parameter.

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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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

Revert all operations and reset image to the original one.

Preferences

Using this item you can change preferences like

chessboard size and color, selection annotation, and
language.

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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

Starting Background Remover

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
(so-called
Alpha
channel)

Image mode
(RGB, 8 bit/channel)

Layer palette
(No layers, only background, image
has not transparency property)

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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

(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 please 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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

Extracting objects
1. In order to extract object you must mark some "Object" and "Backgrounds" 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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

If you make wrong marks you can erase them by right-click and drag. You can switch between
these 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 objects part and mark it as object (green
points).

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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

You can check the result by placing it against colored matted background.

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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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. Pixels 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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

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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ImageSkill Background Remover: Users Manual

FAQ and Troubleshooting

I can not run Background Remover or Background Remover is
grey out in graphic hosts 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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