white border PNG background in Photoshop
When designing, you are dealing with a white border PNG background in Photoshop. If you’ve tried the layer mask in Photoshop and it still doesn’t work, don’t panic! Here’s how to easily remove a white border PNG background in Photoshop.
Table of Contents
The solution to remove a white border PNG background in Photoshop is represented below by a single composite layer.
- Place an empty layer below the image layer and fill it with the gray shown in the image.
- Return to the image layer and press CTRL+J or CMD+J to duplicate it.
- Return to the image layer, double click to open Layer Style, and use this setting
- Select Color Range.
- Place it on your layer and erase the unwanted design fragment
- Place a layer below the white border background PNG
That is it….
How to remove white background from an image to make it transparent in Photoshop
You want to remove the white background from an image for several reasons. Maybe you don’t have a transparent version of your logo, or you need a cut-out of your product to create a composite. Fortunately, Adobe Photoshop has many options for removing a white background. You can remove any type of background with Photoshop, it just takes a little practice.
Let’s focus on removing a white (or solid color) background first. The tool and technique you use will depend on the overall quality of the image and its color. If the image to be cropped has dark colors and no light colors, you can use the simple Background Eraser or Magic Eraser tools. However, for images with light colors or detailed backgrounds, you need a more detailed tool so that you don’t accidentally erase important parts of the image.
In this tutorial, we are going to remove an image background using the Magic Eraser Tool, the Background Eraser Tool, and the Quick Selection Tool.
Tip: The white and gray checkered grid is the industry standard for transparency. When you see this grid, you know that the background is transparent.
How to remove white background from an image with the Magic Eraser Tool
Step 1: Open your image
Please select the image from your folders and open it with Photoshop. Adjust the image to the center of the artboard for easy access to editing.
Open and center your image in your dashboard
Step 2: Unlock the layer
In the layers panel, click the lock to unlock it and make it an editable layer. Rename it from “layer 0” to something descriptive. Alternatively, you can create a new layer by duplicating the first and hiding it by clicking the eye. This is in case you make a mistake that is too big to correct.
Step 3: Select the Magic Eraser Tool
Select the Magic Eraser Tool from the tool panel. It’s the third on the rubber tab. Choose the following preferences:
- Tolerance: 30
- Anti-alias: checked
- coverage: 100%
Step 4: Clear the background
Click on the white background and watch it disappear!
But if your image has a different shadow color that will disappear with the magic eraser. You can try the Background Eraser tool instead.
Step 5: Crop and Save as PNG
Click the crop option on the image tab. This will cut away the extra transparent pieces around the cutout. Export the artwork as a PNG file by clicking
Save for web on the File tab and choose PNG. If you save as JPEG all your hard work will be in vain because you save with a white background, PNG will keep the transparency.
RELATED: How to merge layers in Photoshop
Remove white background from an image with the Background Eraser tool
Step 1: Repeat the first two steps of the Magic Eraser option
Step 2: Select the Background Eraser tool.
You can find it in the Eraser tab of the toolbar. The Background Eraser cursor looks like a circle with a crosshair in the middle, this crosshair controls the tool. It tastes the color directly below, in this case, the white area.
Since we are erasing the white background behind a colored image, we need to choose the following preferences for the background eraser:
- Size: 300-800 points.
- Sampling: One-time or background sampling
- Limits: find edges
- Tolerance: 20%
- Protect foreground color
- Also, make sure that the black color is in the foreground at the bottom of the toolbar.
Step 3: Erase the white background
Place the cursor on the white area and press the mouse button. While holding down the mouse button, drag the cursor over all the white areas. Since we have selected tolerance of 20%, the eraser will not affect colors other than white. If the tolerance were higher, the colors would be slightly affected. Try different tolerance levels for different images, depending on the color of your main diagram. If you find that you have some white pixels left, gently erase them with your regular eraser.
Step 4: Repeat the last two steps of the Magic Eraser option above
Remove background from an image with the quick selection tool
A white background is not always perfectly white, sometimes cloudy, or has dark edges. For this kind of white background, you need a different tool and a different technique. Once you have more control over eraser tools. The following is the quick selection tool. For this tool, we will choose an image with a background that is not perfectly white. If you want to follow this tutorial, you can get the image for free here on Rawpixel.
Step 1: Open the image
Step 2: Duplicate the layer
Unlock and duplicate the image layer and hide the first, keeping it below the layer you will be working on. This layer with the original image is a safety net in case you make a mistake erasing the background. Give the layers descriptive names so you know which one is which.
Step 3: Choose the Quick Selection Tool
Select the Quick Selection tool on the toolbar. It is housed along with the Magic Wand tool. Adjust the cursor preferences as follows:
- New selection
- Size: 100 pixels
- Hardness: 100%
- Distance: 20%
Step 4: Select the object
While holding down the mouse button, drag the cursor over the object you want to separate from the background. This technique selects the object instead of the background for more control over the selection. This is useful when the background, white or not, is not uniform.
Hold the cursor over the object and the inner edge of the selection so that it doesn’t go too far into the background. After you release the cursor, the options in the preferences bar will change, you will only have the option to add or subtract the selection. The ‘new selection’ option will undo the selection you already have.
Step 5: Refine the selection
The selection is probably not perfect, so let’s fine-tune it with the brush for now. Click on q on the keyboard and the image will now show a red area. This red area is the unselected part of your image.
Enlarge the image and choose the brush tool (or press b) to touch up the edges. Use white to add to your selection (remove red) and black to deselect (add red). Reduce brush size for more control in tight spaces and tricky edges.
Finally, click q again to remove the red and see the dotted line selection. Double click on the selection and click on the feather option. Set the pen to 3 and click ok.
Use the white brush to erase the red from the camera buttons and the black to erase the background between your hand and shoulder
Step 6: Invert the selection
If you are sure that the object is correctly selected, invert the selection. Once the background is selected, remove it and you will see the transparency grid.
Apply a light feather effect to the edges of the selection
Step 7: Repeat the last two steps in the Magic Eraser option above
Conclusion: How to remove White border PNG background in Photoshop
Some graphic designers use the lasso and pen tools to select objects from a background, but these tools are not necessary if the background is a solid white color. With the three tools we show you in this guide, you’ll have more than enough information to erase any kind of white background.
