How to crop out the background from text in Photoshop

July 5, 2016 3:15 PM

So, I have this picture which is a page from an antique book. I'd like to use Photoshop to remove the white paper background, leaving just the text -- which I will then overlay on top of another image. Is there an easy way to do this?

Like, idk, increase the contrast so it's just black on white, then somehow tell Photoshop to make the white parts transparent?

posted by dontjumplarry to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

I would use the select color range function. You may get some issues around the letter edges if you're working from a JPG, but assuming good image quality it works well.
posted by Paragon at 3:28 PM on July 5, 2016

Best answer: Yes. The magic wand tool on a non-contiguous setting will select all the white parts and then you can delete what you have selected.
posted by vegartanipla at 3:28 PM on July 5, 2016

Best answer: It would help if you posted a link to the image.

Otherwise, try increasing the contrast, then using the magic wand tool to the type and copy it to a new layer (let's call it layer 1). Then turn off the layer with just combined text and image (which we'll call layer 0). That leaves you free to paste whatever image you want on a new layer (layer 3)
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:28 PM on July 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

You could also use a different layer type in Photoshop. Several of them do a good job of representing white as transparent and black for whatever the effect is.
posted by advicepig at 3:36 PM on July 5, 2016

BB is right. Without seeing the actual image, it's hard to give a definite solution. There are several ways to accomplish the task, but the effectiveness depends on the type of image.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:18 PM on July 5, 2016

I used to always do this with the Peel Off White filter from Bergdesign but I think it's been discontinued in favor of a paid solution.

There are pretty good instructions here in the long answer from "John"...basically you invert your image and create an alpha mask, which has the desired effect of making all of the white areas transparent—with the added benefit of true transparency for any anti-aliasing on the text so you won't have a halo in your finished image.
posted by bcwinters at 4:33 PM on July 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks all!
posted by dontjumplarry at 4:49 PM on July 5, 2016

You could try putting the book image in a layer above your other photo & then use the "multiply" layer blend mode.
posted by belladonna at 4:51 PM on July 5, 2016

I'd paste the book image on top of the other image in a new layer, use Levels on the book image to tweak the curve and whiten the paper, then set layer mode of book image layer to "Darken".
posted by w0mbat at 5:05 PM on July 5, 2016

What belladonna said. Use "multiply" mode. You might need to make the white parts full white, easily done in the Levels palette.
posted by bink at 9:55 PM on July 5, 2016

I'm late, but you could also use the "blend if" sliders. (Here's a simpler tutorial if the first one I linked is overwhelming.)
posted by sailoreagle at 2:08 AM on July 6, 2016 [1 favorite]