this was composed using Pages on the iPad
how can I cut out the paddle from the background so that I can place it in a new Pages document
iPad Pro, iPadOS 16
Something like this or do you want just the wood paddle without any other content? You can't do this in Pages, or effectively in Preview. I used Affinity Photo 2.
Everything on that paddle is selectable, so yes, using Affinity Photo 2, one can end up with a bare paddle by selecting and removing everything but the oar itself. The tweaking issue is that some of the background outside of the paddle closely resembles the color of the wood in the oar, so a flood erase of the background will leave artifacts that one must individually erase. That was the issue with Apple's Preview, but Affinity Photo 2 provides additional cleanup tools that are not present in Apple's Preview.
I have a dentist appointment in a few minutes, so will be gone for a couple of hours. Maybe I will have time afterward to clean up the previous paddle rendition for you.
Extracting the paddle, with or without the graphic and text additions placed on the paddle will depend on how the composed item was created.
If the paddle is a distinct item with on which text, the tree badge and the crossed paddles decoration have been added as images or text boxes, followed by selecting all of these items and Grouping them, then placing the grouped item on the background image, selecting both and Grouping them, the extraction will be a simple matter.
Select and copy the final result, then use Ungroup to separate the paddle from the background. Select and copy the paddle.
If you want only the paddle, or the paddle plus the tree and crossed paddles images. Select the decorated paddle image and repeat the ungrouping. Drag the elements you do not want included, check the location of the elements you are keeping, then select the paddle and the added items you are keeping, and Group them again.
The result can be saved as your extracted paddle image.
Regards,
Barry
Thanks so much Barry for that very detailed response - I appreciate the time you took to offer the two approaches to the problem. Viking, "something like this" is exactly what I am looking for - the ability to cut the relevant object, in this case, the paddle, out of the image that was taken from a web page - here is my starting point -
so you had to had to use Affinity Photo 2 to do that. OK no problem, I can see that Pages can't do everything. So if Affinity Photo 2 can snip anything out of an image - can it also do the following?
erase that small logo of the crossed paddles at the neck of the paddle so we still have a nice wood grain?
get rid of the white square behind the tree so the tree shows directly on the wood grain?
Hah! Small world in that I'm a retired dentist. Hope your appointment is something small like a hygiene session or a filling rather than the real fun stuff like a root canal or wisdom tooth extraction🙂
"Maybe I will have time afterward to clean up the previous paddle rendition for you." - uh, sure, that's a very kind offer on your part. As I said, I'm retired, so a couple of hours or longer is fine with me.
I looked further at that canoe paddle image and I cannot remove the logo or the S H Tree logo image. I suggest you find a 300 dpi paddle image (stock?) online without the other artwork burned into it and use that as your base.
Today's oral surgery was a titanium implant for the forthcoming crown. In April, it was removal of three wisdom teeth and a molar. In one session.
Selecting a Portion of an Image in Pages
