Removing Backgrounds

[Vector01]

I don't know about everyone else but I've been spending a lot of time manually removing the background in my patterns with Gimp (maybe I missed something in the tutorials). Even though you can't see the background, it becomes evident when checking your pattern using the bucket fill. I would see these large white areas even though I was confident that the pattern was correct. I would end up going back with the paint brush and clearing those areas.

 

While working on a pattern in Gimp today I thought I would try a little experiment. I had done all the basics first, desat, curves, photocopy, etc. I then went ahead and created the pattern as normal. When I was satisfied I saved a copy as XXX1.png (don't forget to save it again as the original XXX.xcf format).

 

Opening Inkscape I set up my page as normal and imported the XXX1.png. I dragged it over to the new page and then ran "trace bitmap" checking off the "remove background" box. I placed the revised image on the new page and then used the "export" option to save it again as a XXX2.png.

 

Opening Gimp again and setting up a new page I opened up the XXX2.png photo. I brought the revised pattern over to the new page and then saved the pattern as XXX3.xcf. Low and behold all the background was gone. I ran the bucket fill and the pattern turned black with no annoying white patches. I could then save it or make changes as needed. This might seem a lot of work but it saved me a lot of time trying to remove the background manually in Gimp with a paint brush.