Instant Alpha Export

[ArtOfWarfare]

I want to remove the background from a picture. Like instant alpha... but... when copying an image out of keynote, it undoes instant alpha! So if someone has a simple way to go around this, please tell me. My current, rather long and probably unnecessarily complicated process is...

1.) Open the image in Keynote.
2.) Make any modifications you want (Keynote offers things like instant alpha, masking, changing colors, adding shadows or reflections, ect.)
3.) Add a square, and set the fill and stroke to none. Make it smaller than the object you want to export and have it either in front of or behind it completely (otherwise you'll get odd empty space around the export.)
4.) Select both your instant alpha picture and the transparent box (by click and drag select,) and then copy them.
5.) Paste them in whatever program you want and it should work.
Or...
If you just want to save the image, open ClipEdit (click here for free download), and copy it over. Then select File->Export As... and choose which type you want. (I prefer .png because it offers all colors and transparency without being very large... I've been told .tif is better but I can't see the difference.)

I really fill there should be a better way than this though. It seems like Preview should offer instant alpha... instead all it has is masking...

 

[janitorC7]

I want to remove the background from a picture. Like instant alpha... but... when copying an image out of keynote, it undoes instant alpha! So if someone has a simple way to go around this, please tell me. My current, rather long and probably unnecessarily complicated process is...

1.) Open the image in Keynote.
2.) Make any modifications you want (Keynote offers things like instant alpha, masking, changing colors, adding shadows or reflections, ect.)
3.) Add a square, and set the fill and stroke to none. Make it smaller than the object you want to export and have it either in front of or behind it completely (otherwise you'll get odd empty space around the export.)
4.) Select both your instant alpha picture and the transparent box (by click and drag select,) and then copy them.
5.) Paste them in whatever program you want and it should work.
Or...
If you just want to save the image, open ClipEdit (click here for free download), and copy it over. Then select File->Export As... and choose which type you want. (I prefer .png because it offers all colors and transparency without being very large... I've been told .tif is better but I can't see the difference.)

I really fill there should be a better way than this though. It seems like Preview should offer instant alpha... instead all it has is masking...

If you have 10.5
youse the instant alpha feature in preview and then save it

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

If you have 10.5
youse the instant alpha feature in preview and then save it

I am using 10.5 but I can't find instant alpha in preview. Which menu is it in? I would assume tools but I don't see it. I've searched help for "apha" in preview but it returns no results.

Edit: Oh my... Apple hid it there!? That is so unobvious... and why the heck doesn't is show up when I search help?

For anyone else looking for the instant alpha tool in preview, you have to go to the drop down menu on the button in the toolbar that says "Select".

I removed the select button from my toolbar because it seemed completely useless... "you can select things just by dragging, why do I need that" I thought.

But it appears to be the only way to access Instant Alpha. Geez, what the heck Apple? It's no where in the menu... you can't give it a dedicated button in the toolbar like you can in iWork... you can't right click to get it... there's no keyboard shortcut to get it...

Well, now I have a much shorter process for removing backgrounds from images. Open the image in preview. Choose select => Instant Alpha and remove the background. Save or copy the image from preview. It's almost as simple as it should be...

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Hey uhhh...

when did Preview 4.1 get released?

Anyways... I can't find the Instant Alpha tool anymore. The select button no longer has a drop down menu.

Is it just me or did they in fact remove Instant Alpha from Preview durning the update from 4.0 to 4.1?

Neither the Mark Up nor Annotate menus have Instant Alpha.

Help search doesn't find results when I search for Instant Alpha... but then as I said in my prior post 8 months ago, it never did.

Was it a mistake that Instant Alpha was in Preview 4.0? I can't imagine they would have removed it in 4.1...

can someone else verify for me that Instant Alpha is no longer available in Preview?

Edit: Odd...

suddenly the select button has a drop down menu again. And the text button has disappeared...

woah... I figured it out. Holy crap, talk about a bad interface design. It actually changes the menu without giving any hint about it when you're editing a PDF rather than an image. All of the menus change. The inspector changes. Everything. It gives you no signs at all of the reason why it's not letting you use Instant Alpha. So just for the record... if you try opening an image via "New From Clipboard" in Preview, it'll open it as a PDF (or maybe the only reason it was opened as a PDF is because what was actually on the pasteboard was a group of shapes... not an image. Clip Edit recognizes shapes as an image (as I'd like it to.)

 

[pom32]

easy way

first make al the modifications u want in keynote.copy the image to clip board and click on the preview icon.press command+N.there you have the modified picture from keynote.if u want to save it press command+S and select destination and file type