Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
age's Background layer into a regular layer, just the way the Background Eraser (explained
next) does. So if you want to do something to the remaining object that requires a regular
layer—like applying a layer style (
Adding Layer Styles
)—this tool saves you a step.
The Background Eraser
Lots of people think
this
eraser deserves the name “Magic” much more than the Magic
Eraser tool. This tool—as you can guess from its name—is a tremendous help when you
want to remove all the background around an object.
The Background Eraser deletes all the pixels under your cursor (but outside the edges of the
object) and renders the area it's used on transparent, even if that area is on a Background lay-
er. (If you activate this tool and then click a Background layer, your computer may hesitate
for a sec because it's busy transforming the Background into a regular layer.) Here's how to
use it:
1.
Activate the Background Eraser
.
Press E or, in the Tools panel, click the Eraser icon, and then choose the Background
Eraser in the Tool Options area. (Its icon is an eraser with a pair of scissors next to it.)
2.
Choose a brush size
.
When you activated the Background Eraser, your cursor turned into a circle with
crosshairs in its center. These crosshairs are important: They're the Background
Eraser's “hot spot.” Elements turns any color that you drag them over into transparen-
cy.
The size of the cursor (the circle) changes depending on how large a brush you choose
in the Tool Options area, but the crosshairs stay the same size. As you can see in
Fig-
makes it easy to remove big chunks of the background at once, since everything with-
in the cursor's circle gets eliminated.
NOTE
If
all
your brush tools start using crosshairs as their cursors (not just the Back-
ground Eraser), the box on
What Happened to My Cursor?
tells you how to get
back to the regular, circular cursor.
