[MacGrad]

While messing around with AI, I've come across a slight problem. Does anyone know how to adjust a picture file to remove the "box" that surrounds it?

My illustrated example below - I would like the Moose to be on top of the maple leaf, but not lose any of the leaf's outline to the excess white area around the picture.

(Check the "Are there enough Canadians" thread in the Group Buy forum to see the rough chip design.)

Thanks,
Al

[Shawnpeter]

select the image.

click on Window->Transparency

It should be in the same box as the stroke & gradient transport, you'll see a the transparency tab, which clicking on the menu part above will gain it focus. There will be a drop-down menu that currently should say "Normal." Try a bunch of the different formulas, like Screen, Lighten. You'll find one that should work.

If not, $30 and I'll re-create it into a vector file.


Hope this helps

[Fins]

You can also use the pen tool and outline your moose or draw an elispe or whatever encloses the shape enough (keep the newly drawn section with no stroke & no fill). Once you have the shape select it & the moose pic then go to "clipping mask" [ 7 ] and that should hide the unwanted portions.... I think anyway.

[Shawnpeter]

Fins has a point, you can always slap a clipping mask over it. In some cases that will just be like sweeping the dust under the rug. I don't know if the chip makers prefer vector only art or not.

(didn't mean any offense by that Fins)

Your best bet would be to find a vector version of that image or make a vector version of it, IMO.

[FullMonte]

If you use LiveTrace to convert the image to a Vector graphic, you should be able to simply select the black shape and delete it.

That's what I did with some images that had a white box around them. Worked like a charm.

After that, select the white leaf and stroke it with whatever color outline you want it to have.