Best way to crop an image with uneven boundarys

[xbeatle]

Hi, so I'm looking to utilize Screenshot Captor in a way that I ordinarily dont..that is, to crop out the uneven white boundary around an image that was included in my original capture.

As you can see in the attachment, the image is a blank Scroll(that I plan on adding text to).

I'm aware of the "cropping" options and sense that this involves either the "lasso" or one of the "Magic Wand" selections.

The Lasso one is more or less impossible for me to do as clean a crop as I'd like.

The Global Magic Wand option seems to automatically delineate the Scroll from the white region of the outer boundary(this looks to be the right choice) but when I utilize it, it deletes the Scroll part and just leaves me with it's shadow now on a white background.

Would welcome anyone's input who has done this before.....

Thanks in advance.

Jonathan

[mouser]

Well, you almost figured it out.

• Use Magic Wand to select the background white area (either Magic Wand Flood Fill or Global Magic Wand).
• This will select the background area as you point out.
• Then in the Edit menu, choose Select -> Invert Selection (or just hit Ctrl+I).  That will select the scroll itself.
• Now you can use the crop command/button to delete the background, as you want.

Having said this -- remember that SC is not meant to be a full featured paint/photo manipulation program, and you will find more powerful features in the big image editing tools (like the Gimp, Paint.net, RealWorld Paint, etc.), and remember that SC is very happy to let you configure it to invoke them to do editing on an image, and will automatically reload files after they are changed by an image editor -- so it makes it really easy to use in conjunction with such tools.  And if you do a lot of background removal, there are special tools for that too (i think there is a thread on that as well).

[xbeatle]

Yup..

Hey Mouser, thanks so much for both the speedy reply and helping me to solve this mystery..lol

As I'm aware of how to use some of GIMP's functionality, I hope to learn how to use it in conjunction with SC..

Thanks again,

Jonathan

[mouser]

I hope to learn how to use it in conjunction with SC..

Just go into Screenshot Captor preferences, then go to the External Tools tab near the bottom, and set the GIMP as your "Ext. Image Editor".

After that you can open any screenshot in the gimp by pressing the "Launch Graphic Editor" button on the Screenshot Captor toolbar (it's two down from the print button).

[xbeatle]

Thanks again..saved me a lot of time.

Btw, you wouldn't happen to have success using the "Grab Windows Object or Scrolling Window" feature?.

Seems like every time I try to use that one, the scrolling part works but I get an overlap in the middle of the captured image..just comes out very buggy.

Anyway, perhaps we'll leave that one for another time and place..

Thanks again,

Jonathan

[mouser]

See this page for some videos showing how to make scrolling capture work well:
https://www.donation....msg277095#msg277095

[xbeatle]

Hi mouser, so I was able to separate the attached scroll from it's white bordered background after doing your suggested procedure.

I was able to just get the scroll with it's jagged boundaries..the ideal scenario.

But now, when I go to save it to a file in my computer, it saves with a white frame(boundary) around it..which is what I wanted to get rid of from the beginning.

I want to save exactly what I'm presently looking at inside the Screenshot Captor main window..the scroll with the jagged boundary that after your process, no longer has a white frame/boundary..

Is there an additional step to Save my newly defined image?

Thanks so much in advance.

Jonathan

[mouser]

what file format are you using? as long as you are using PNG, ScreenshotCaptor should preserve true transparency.
if you save to a format that does not support transparency (bmp, jpg), then SC has no choice.

[xbeatle]

So, I've attached a screenshot of my Main Window with the Scroll exactly as I'd like to save it..most recent attachment.

Unfortunately, after removing the unwanted border, when trying to save it to my computer, it appears back as the first attachment..regardless of whether or not I save it with the .png format..like the latest attachment.

It's not the end of the world but I'd love to provide just the scroll w/o background to my members...

[mouser]

dont see anything attached.

SC is quite happy to preserve background transparency so there is no reason it shouldnt work.

[xbeatle]

Hey Mouser, so I've attached the .png file made from the jagged edged scroll that I was able to create via your timely instructions.

As you can see, the problem is it's adding back the white border when I save it from SC.

Any thoughts?

Thanks so much,

Jonathan

[mouser]

Well you are right, the background is no longer transparent.

Now the question is why..

Can you go back to the point where you deleted the background and it was transparent in SC.

Then go look at these options:


The flattening is what you want to avoid.  So if you are doing a SaveAs, you'll have to UNCHECK that option that says to flatten when doing a SaveAs.

[xbeatle]

Ah yes, that would of been my next guess 

Thanks again for the quick replies mouser..

All good..

[mouser]

I probably should disable that and not make it default.

[xbeatle]

makes sense...