How To Remove Image Backgrounds Using Gimp
The GNU Image Manipulation Program or “GIMP” is amazing free, open-source software created and maintained by a dedicated group of volunteer developers. It’s an incredibly full-featured image editor with powerful tools to make the most of your graphics and photos. Don’t be intimidated by its complexity; sometimes it’s just a really useful tool for simpler tasks. We have published other tutorials on How to resize images in GIMP and how Make GIMP look more like Photoshopbut what if you just want to remove the background from an image in GIMP:
There are numerous reasons you might want to remove a background from an image, but it can be a difficult process. However, there are numerous excellent tools and approaches to accomplish this task, and in this guide we’ll explore how to use them in GIMP.
Prepare the image in GIMP
1. Start GIMP and use File – Open to select the image you want to remove the background from. We used this image of a snowman from a wool craft project as it has some trickier aspects such as: B. A very woolly and fuzzy outline that allows us to show a variety of approaches.
2. Add an “Alpha Channel” to the active layer by left-clicking on the active layer, then right-clicking and selecting “Add Alpha Channel”.
We are now ready to use different background removal tools. However, it’s worth noting that the tools we’re about to examine are all types of selection tools, although for this task we always erase what we select, these selection methods can be used with other tools; Move, scale, the bucket fill tool and much more.
Using Fuzzy Select in GIMP
1. Choose the Fuzzy Select toolit looks like a magic wand and Left-click anywhere in a background area of the image. The Fuzzy Select tool now selects a background area that matches the color of the area you clicked. In our case, it selects a solid area of wood grain in the background of the image that is all the same color. An image with a uniform background, e.g. B. an object against a clear blue sky would select the entire background at once.
2. Press Delete to remove this area. By repeatedly selecting areas with the Fuzzy Select tool, we can remove much of the background area of our image, but it would take a lot of iterations to fully complete the task. If you ever need to erase all selected areas on an image, a good keyboard shortcut is to press “Ctrl + Shift + A”. This works for any selection area made with any of the selection tools.
There are large parts of our image background that we could select using the rectangle marquee tool. This tool is pretty intuitive to use and can save time by simply removing a lot of background in chunks. This tool can also be switched to an ellipse tool to create elliptical or circular selections.
1. Right-click the Select Tool icon and select the desired shape tool. You can also select one of these tools from the Tools – Selection Tools menu.
2. click and drag in the background area of the image to create a sculpted selection.
3. Press the delete button to remove that part of the background.
For selecting complex shaped areas we can use Free Selection tool. With the free selection tool, you can draw connected straight lines to create custom selection areas.
1. Click on the icon, it resembles a lasso.
2. Left click to start a line and move to a new location and Left-click again to add a new line segment. To complete the selection you need to connect the last line to the very first node where you started. When you hover the cursor over the start node it will turn yellow and then left click to create a selection area within the lines you created.
3. Use the delete key to remove the selection.
The path tool is not just a selection tool, it is a tool that allows the creation of complex selections (Bézier curves) that we can edit and paint with. However, it can also be used as a selection tool, similar to the free selection tool, but with the added benefit of straight and curved lines. This gives you both control and accuracy when navigating around a complex object.
1. Select the path tool from the tool icon area or you can find it under “Tools – Paths”.
2. Left click to start a path and then add more rows by moving them and left clicking.
3. Hover the cursor over a line segment, click the left mouse button and draw the line to create a curve and control handles.
4. To close a path, Hover the cursor over the first path node, hold down the Ctrl key and left click.
5. To turn your included path into a selection, Click Select >> From Path. You should now see your path outline become a selection and you can delete that section of the background with the Delete key.
There is another way to remove an object from an image using the Foreground Select tool. With this tool we can specify what is the foreground and what is the background by setting a border and a mask.
1. Click on the Foreground Selection Tool.
2. Draw a rough outline around the object and press Enter. This sets what is the foreground (light blue) and what is now set as the background (dark blue).
3. In the foreground area, use the brush already selected to loosely define the foreground image. Don’t go too close to the border and resize the brush by pressing [ (smaller_, or ] (greater).
4. Click Preview to check the mask. When you are satisfied, click Select.
5. The foreground can now be cut out of the image using CTRL + X or Edit >> Cut.
With this collection of tools, you now have a variety of background removal approaches at your fingertips, with the added bonus that you’ve learned how to use multiple types of selection tools that are useful for many other features in GIMP.