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Design and Prepress

Cut out the image first or convert it to SVG? Sort by subject and background selection

Written and maintained by:Sweet Tomato E-commerce Technology Co., Ltd. Updated

When the background is complex and only the subject is needed, you usually cut out the image first and check the transparent edges, and then determine whether the subject is suitable for vectorization. There are already transparent logos that can be converted directly; when you only need a transparent photo, exporting a PNG may be sufficient.

What problems do cutout and vectorization solve respectively?

Cutting handles the separation of the subject and the background, and the output can still be a pixel image; vectorization traces outlines and color blocks, and the goal is to obtain graphic paths. The two processes solve different problems, and transparent files are not necessarily vector files.

Product photos, hair, and soft shadows often require the preservation of fine pixel levels. If you just change the background color of the product, there is no need to convert it to SVG to obtain a transparent background; this can also avoid unnecessary path complexity.

How to choose the three types of materials?

Transparent logo or flat icon: Check the edges of the original image first, and then convert directly according to PNG or WebP format guidelines. Patterns with a simple background but the same color as the main body: first confirm whether the background can be processed independently to avoid deleting the main body when deleting by color after conversion.

Complex photos: If you only need the pattern, you can first separate the subject in the cutout tool. The official description of remove.bg introduces the use of transparent background processing; the specific available functions and file export requirements are subject to the current interface of the tool.

  1. Clarify the purpose: transparent photos, or graphic paths that need to be edited.
  2. Checks whether the subject and background share color, shadow, or translucent edges.
  3. When you need to separate, cut out the image first and export a static image with a transparent channel.
  4. Check the black and white background colors before deciding whether to vectorize.

How to avoid leaving noise on transparent edges?

Don’t just check the results on a white canvas. When switching to a dark base, light edges, unremoved fragments, and accidentally deleted areas are more likely to be exposed. Keep the original image and compare the border positions such as ears, thin lines, hollows and small words.

When deleting by color in the SVG editor of this site, all areas of the same color will be affected. If the subject cannot be separated from the background, undo and return to the original image processing rather than continuing to delete similar colors.

  1. Check the transparent, white and black previews separately.
  2. Confirm whether the translucent shadow needs to be retained.
  3. Export separately after editing, and reopen the exported file for inspection.

SVG format basis and reference materials

SVG can contain both vector shapes, images, and text. Therefore, a file name ending in .svg does not alone prove that the original image has been converted to an editable path.W3C SVG 2 Specification: SVG Graphics Objectdescribes these object types.

The above information is used to describe the file format. The upload restrictions, membership requirements, results saving and editing capabilities of this site are subject to the page description and actual functions.

Further reading