Need help using clip art in Elements.

[Iloveeliot]

Hi. First of all is this the best place to ask technical questions about creating a design? I am using Photoshop Elements 9 and I have some experience but not lots. I am trying to create some project life Disney cards and I could use some help. When I see a clip art image I like I am making it as big as possible and then copying and pasting it into my Elements document. The clip art always seems to look pixely and not real clean. Is there something I should be doing differently?

Also when I paste the clip art into my document it had a black background rather than the white background I see in the clip art site. Sometimes I can use the magic wand tool to select the background and I can delete it but sometimes that doesn't work. I tried to save the clip art to my computer and then open it in my document and the background problem is better but I am getting a message about converting the color profile into Adobe RGB. I went into where it says Color Profile and selected convert to adobe RGB. When I try to add that image as a layer to my document I just get the image about converting to RGB again but since I already did that I don't know what to do.

I really appreciate your help! I'm so excited about creating these cards I just want to make sure they look good! Thanks again.

 

[RustManFan]

gif or png files will have the black background unless you save them to your computer from where you find them and then do a FILE PLACE. don't do COPY PASTE

 

[Iloveeliot]

Thank you Marion! File place worked like a charm! Any feedback as to why the clip art looks kind of jagged and pixelated? I have been getting the images from the suggested clip art sites in the sticky. Maybe they will look ok when printed and they just look a bit jagged in Elements. My color printer just died on my so I can't print one out to test it. What do you think? I really don't want to have to go in and clean up each clip art image. If you have a few particular sites you use doe clip art would you mind sharing as your DISigns always look crystal clear and top notch! Thanks again!

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

If the images looked jagged in PE, then they will print jagged. As a general rule, you do not ever want to make a graphic bigger. You want to try to find the largest images you can and then make them smaller if necessary. Anytime you make them bigger, they will undoubtedly become blurry or pixelated.

What I normally do is limit my image search to large size images. Then you will be sure they are big enough for your design.

I hope this helps!

 

[RustManFan]

I always Google or Bing even when I know that my favorite Disney clip art sites might have an image. And I always pick large....Amy has listed one of the most important tips...resizing usually doesn't work to make bigger. I have had pretty good luck making clip art smaller on a DISign though

 

[Iloveeliot]

Thanks for your help! I haven't really been making the images bigger I don't think just smaller. So should I not go off of the list of clip art sites in the sticky? I should google each image and set the search parameters for large. That seems much more time consuming but I am totally willing to do it. Are there any clip art sites where all of the images are high res enough to use? When looking at a clip art site how can I tell if the image is high res? Will it show the pixel count and is there a magic number to be above? Is it 300 or more? Thank you for taking time to help me understand all of this!

Just tried to use the images from google and so far everything I have found will require an extraction and cleaning up. There has to be a way to find images on a clear background. I really don't want to have to keep masking backgrounds as I'm not very good at it. When I use the magic wand it seems to give me an issue with jagged lines again. I'm really frustrated and ready to give up at this point. Maybe I should leave the DISigning to people who know what they are doing. I just really wanted to learn.

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

Thanks for your help! I haven't really been making the images bigger I don't think just smaller. So should I not go off of the list of clip art sites in the sticky? I should google each image and set the search parameters for large. That seems much more time consuming but I am totally willing to do it. Are there any clip art sites where all of the images are high res enough to use? When looking at a clip art site how can I tell if the image is high res? Will it show the pixel count and is there a magic number to be above? Is it 300 or more? Thank you for taking time to help me understand all of this!

Just tried to use the images from google and so far everything I have found will require an extraction and cleaning up. There has to be a way to find images on a clear background. I really don't want to have to keep masking backgrounds as I'm not very good at it. When I use the magic wand it seems to give me an issue with jagged lines again. I'm really frustrated and ready to give up at this point. Maybe I should leave the DISigning to people who know what they are doing. I just really wanted to learn.

First of all, do not give up. The cards you are producing are very cute and I know you are helping lots of DIS'ers. You can use the clipart from the sticky's you just want to be sure that if you use something that you do not make it any bigger. If you are using a small graphic in your design, then finding smaller images will probably work fine.

If you want the image to take up a great deal of space in your design, you will probably need to search beyond the sticky's. It can be very time consuming to find the right large size images/graphics. I know that sometimes for myself, it can take longer to find the perfect graphic than it does to create the design itself.

Now as far as cleaning up a graphic. There are some that are easier than others. If you find something that has a border, it often is pretty easy to use the eraser and erase the background. For images that do not have a distinct border or the border is similar in color to the original background color, than erasing can be difficult or time consuming. I know that I have taken hours sometimes cleaning up a single image/graphic. It really depends on how much you really WANT the graphic. I wish I could say that there were places on the internet to find graphics already cleaned up, but to my knowledge, this does not exist in any high resolution format.

I hope this helps!

 

[RustManFan]

I find easiest way to remove a background (especially if it isn't too busy) is to change to a color not in the part you want to keep. More often then not I use lime green. Then I use the background eraser tool and just click on that color. Works great!!

 

[Iloveeliot]

First of all, do not give up. The cards you are producing are very cute and I know you are helping lots of DIS'ers. You can use the clipart from the sticky's you just want to be sure that if you use something that you do not make it any bigger. If you are using a small graphic in your design, then finding smaller images will probably work fine.

If you want the image to take up a great deal of space in your design, you will probably need to search beyond the sticky's. It can be very time consuming to find the right large size images/graphics. I know that sometimes for myself, it can take longer to find the perfect graphic than it does to create the design itself.

Now as far as cleaning up a graphic. There are some that are easier than others. If you find something that has a border, it often is pretty easy to use the eraser and erase the background. For images that do not have a distinct border or the border is similar in color to the original background color, than erasing can be difficult or time consuming. I know that I have taken hours sometimes cleaning up a single image/graphic. It really depends on how much you really WANT the graphic. I wish I could say that there were places on the internet to find graphics already cleaned up, but to my knowledge, this does not exist in any high resolution format.

I hope this helps!

Thanks so much! I decided I'll use some clip art and some higher res stuff depending on what I'm doing. I wish I was faster at cleaning up the backgrounds. I spent 3 hours yesterday trying to get rid of a background. Im sure there are better ways to do it than what I've been doing but I have no idea what they are. ive been using the magic wand as much as i can and then cleaning up the edges with a layer mask and a brush. I'm just glad I'm not doing t-shirt images! Everything I'm doing at this point is 3x4 or 4x6 cards so if an image is a bit jagged it isn't a big deal as long as people aren't printing them bigger. I'm really enjoying it though. Thank you for your encouragement.

 

[RustManFan]

sounds like my way is much faster! generally it takes minutes!!

 

[RustManFan]

I don't know what's in it but the sticky about PSE might also have some helpful advice...

 

[Iloveeliot]

I find easiest way to remove a background (especially if it isn't too busy) is to change to a color not in the part you want to keep. More often then not I use lime green. Then I use the background eraser tool and just click on that color. Works great!!

I don't know of a background eraser tool in Elements. Are you using a different program or have I just been unaware of the tool? Thanks for your help Marion!

 

[Iloveeliot]

I find easiest way to remove a background (especially if it isn't too busy) is to change to a color not in the part you want to keep. More often then not I use lime green. Then I use the background eraser tool and just click on that color. Works great!!

I've never heard of the background eraser tool! That will definitely be a project for tomorrow, learn to use the background eraser tool! Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Iloveeliot]

I find easiest way to remove a background (especially if it isn't too busy) is to change to a color not in the part you want to keep. More often then not I use lime green. Then I use the background eraser tool and just click on that color. Works great!!

Ok, I just used the background eraser tool for the first time to remove a white background and my mind is blown! Marion I could hug you. What normally would have taken me hours took me minutes and I didn't end up with jagged edges like I usually do with the magic wand! Someone please tell me what else I don't know! I seriously need a free one on one tutor to teach me all about elements. I'm not great learning from books or youtube. Any current designers want to come to my house and do lessons? I can't afford to pay you but I will gladly feed you!

 

[marneb]

There are some newer disigners that had a thread about sharing tips and tricks.....Elements village also has some great tutorials as well as YouTube. I have learned tons from YouTube tutorials !

 

[RustManFan]

I was just going to suggest that you sign up for the elementsvillage.com forum

Very helpful!