How to Remove Backgrounds in Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a graphic design program that specializes in creating vector graphics. This is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of applications. Unlike Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator does not specialize in editing and changing the characteristics of photos. However, you can apply several ways to remove the background on the photo. The most appropriate operation will depend on the amount of detail in the image. This article will show you how to remove the background of an image in Adobe Illustrator.

Table of Contents

Using Clipping Mask

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Open Illustrator. The Illustrator program has a yellow icon with the word “Ai”. Click that icon to open Adobe Illustrator. You need a paid subscription to Adobe Illustrator to download and use Adobe Creative Cloud. An individual Adobe CC subscription costs US$20.99 (about VND 480,000) per month for one app. The individual subscription fee to use the entire application is US$52.99 (about VND 1.2 million) per month. You can try this program for free for 7 days here. In addition, you also have the option of registration for businesses and students.

Open the image in Adobe Illustrator. Here are the steps to open an image in Illustrator:

Click File in the menu at the top of the screen.
Click Open to open a new image or Place to insert an image into the current file.
Select the file you want to open.
Click Open .

Enlarge image. To enlarge the image, you would click the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar and press Z . Click on the area of the photo that you want to enlarge. ^{[1] X Research Source} To remove the background of a photo, you need to create a border around the part of the image that you want to keep. Using the zoom tool is the best way to get contours with high precision.

If the image to be processed does not have much detail, such as only a certain shape or line, use the Magic Wand tool.

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Select the Pen tool. Click the fountain pen icon in the toolbar on the left or press P . ^{[2] X Research Source} This is a tool that allows you to create shapes and lines with multiple clicks. Each click creates an “anchor point”. As more anchor points are added, you’ll see a line linking the new point to the previous point.

Click once on the edge of the magnified object. This is the first anchor point operation. The end goal is to create a border around the object. You will see a line from the first anchor point to the cursor.

Click another point on the edge of the object. This places another anchor point on the edge of the object that you want to contour with a straight line from one anchor point to another.

Create curves: To create curves with the Pen tool, simply click and drag when placing the anchor point. This creates a curve in the direction opposite to the drag direction. The curve will continue to expand as you add more anchor points. To create a line or change the direction of a curve, you’ll click on the previous anchor point before adding another anchor point. Don’t worry if the curve isn’t perfect, because you can adjust it later.

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Use the Pen tool to create a border around the subject on the image. Apply mouse clicks to create lines and anchor points, or click and drag to create curves to create outlines around objects in the image.

You can press the spacebar to move the image so that the part that is not on the screen can be seen. This is useful when you’re zooming in on an image to the point where you can’t see all the details. The pointer will turn into a small hand that allows you to drag the image in any direction, so that other parts are brought into view without breaking the outline created by the Pen tool.
If you see colored areas covering the image, click the color box in the upper left corner (this is the fill tool). Click the white box with the red slash to turn off the coloring.

Click the first anchor point (again) to complete the outline. You should now see a dotted outline around the object.

Use the secondary selection tool to adjust the outline around the object. Click the white pointer-like icon or press the A key to select the sub-selection tool. You can use the secondary selection tool to move the anchor point within the outline. When you click on the anchor point, you will see two dotted lines extending from the anchor point. These are called “Bezier curve handles”. Click and drag the Bezier curve adjustment node with the sub-select tool to adjust the curvature.

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Click the selection tool. This is the tool used to select and move objects. Click the black pointer icon in the left toolbar, or press the V key to select the tool.

Select the image and outline around the subject. To select a picture and outline, you would press the Shift key and click on the image, and then click the border you just created around the object with the Pen tool.

Right-click the contour and choose Create Clipping Mask . The clipping mask will erase the entire image except for the object in the outline.

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Save Image. The Adobe Illustrator program can save images as AI, EPS, SVG, or PDF files. ^{[3] X Research Sources} The .EPS format is widely used in almost all graphics applications and word processing programs. You can also save an image as a PDF. Follow these steps to save the image:

Click File .
Click Save as .
Enter a name for the file in the field next to “File name”.
Use the menu next to “File format” to choose an image format.
Click Save .

Export the image to a PNG file. ^{[4] X Research Sources} PNG files are high quality web images with transparent background support. This file type is best suited for snapshots as it supports up to 16 million colors and accepts saving images with transparent backgrounds. You can also save images as JPEG files, but this format does not accept transparent backgrounds. Follow these steps to export an image:

Click File .
Click Export .
Enter a name for the file in the field next to “File name”.
Use the menu next to “File format” to choose an image format.
Click Save .

Using Image Trace

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Determine if Image Trace is right for your photo. This works best for images with only a few primary colors. Various types of logos and animations would be suitable for this technique. Complex images with many colors, such as photographs, will be difficult to contour in Adobe Illustrator. With these images, you should try using a clipping mask to remove the background. You can also use Photoshop to remove the background of an image.

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Open Illustrator. The Illustrator program has a yellow icon with the word “Ai”. Click that icon to open Adobe Illustrator. You need a paid subscription to Adobe Illustrator to download and use Adobe Creative Cloud. An individual Adobe CC subscription costs US$20.99 (about VND 480,000) per month for one app. The individual subscription fee to use the entire application is US$52.99 (about VND 1.2 million) per month. You can try this program for free for 7 days here. In addition, you also have the option of registration for businesses and students.

Open the image in Adobe Illustrator. The steps to open an image in Illustrator are as follows:

Click File in the menu at the top of the screen.
Click Open to open a new image or Place to insert an image into the current file.
Select the file you want to open.
Click Open .

Click the selection tool and select the photo. The selection tool has a black pointer icon in the left toolbar. Click the selection tool or press V , then click the image in the artboard to select it.

Open the Image Trace pane. The steps to open the Image Trace window are as follows: ^{[5] X Research Source}

Illustrator CC:
- Click Window in the menu bar at the top of the window.
- Click Image Trace .
Older Illustrator version:
- Click Object in the menu bar at the top of the window.
- Click Live Trace .
- Click Tracing Options .

Select “Cpor” (Color) mode. To do this, you’ll click the selection menu next to “Mode” and click Cpor .

Select the maximum number of colors in the image. Use the slider next to “Cpors” to set the maximum number of colors in the image. You can also enter a color number in the field next to the slider. If the image has too many colors, the process will take a long time, and the computer may not be able to convert all the colors into a vector object.

On older versions of Adobe Illustrator, you would click Max Cpors (Maximum Number of Colors) to see the slider.

Click Trace . This is the option in the lower right corner of the frame. This will scan the image and create an outline that can be converted to a vector object.

Click Expand . This option is available in the frame at the top of the screen. This is the operation to convert an image into a vector object. You should now see a border around the other colors of the image. You can also select them with the selection tool.

Unlink objects in the image. Now the shapes in the image have been converted to vector shapes. However, you must unlink all shapes in the image to be able to select them individually. Follow these steps to unlink shapes in an image:

Click on the photo with the selection tool to select it.
Click Object in the toolbar at the top.
Click Ungroup .

Select the background object with the selection tool and press Delete . Click the selection tool in the toolbar or press the “V” key. Click the object in the background image. Press the Delete key to delete the object. If the wallpaper is solid color, just click on the background and press the Delete key. If the background has a lot of detail, you will have to select and delete many objects.

To select multiple objects, hold down the Shift key while clicking the entire object to be selected.
If the background has multiple objects of the same color, you can select all objects with the same color by using the Magic Wand tool. This is the tool with a sparkling wand icon in the left toolbar.

Save Image. The Adobe Illustrator program can save images as AI, EPS, SVG, or PDF files. ^{[6] X Research Sources} The .EPS format is widely used in almost all graphics applications and word processing programs. You can also save an image as a PDF. Follow these steps to save the image:

Click File .
Click Save as .
Enter a name for the file in the field next to “File name”.
Use the menu displayed next to “File format” to select an image format.
Click Save .

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Export images to PNG files. ^{[7] X Research Sources} PNG files are high quality web images with transparent background support. This file type is best suited for photos as it can support up to 16 million colors and accepts images with transparent backgrounds. You can also save images as JPEG files, but this format does not accept transparent backgrounds. Follow these steps to export an image:

Click File .
Click Export .
Enter a name for the file in the field next to “File name”.
Use the menu next to “File format” to choose an image format.
Click Save .

Steps

Using Clipping Mask

Using Image Trace

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