Make background of scanned decal images clear not white?

How do you make the background of a scanned decal image clear or invisible before you print it out so the background isn't white when you print it out?

Any ideas, or tips would be appreciated.

David

How does a printer print "white" anyway?

Edit: as in, if you are printing into clear decal film, anything white will not show up.

I don't know how. But the printed decal background is kind of cloudy when it's cut out and peeled off of the backing. I'm using Avery clear label sheet for creating see though labels. You can see through them. they just look cloudy to me. I thought the printer might be trying to duplicate the white background. I've also got some dingy yellowish looking scanned decal images. I don't want them coming out with a yellowish background.

David

Do you have image editing software? You should be able to replace any color with any other color - I typically clean up the background of scanned decals by making them white - there's a paint bucket tool in most editing software that should make this pretty easy. (Agree with CarVac, use clear decal paper and white background on your images).

Here you go- step by step directions for GIMP with photos.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?26105-Image-Processing-and-Photoshop

kj

You would need to do a 'selection' of the white background color in your image editing program, then hit delete. In Photoshop you could use the select by color command to choose all the white. Some image editing programs allow you to recognize the clear areas by showing a grid or crosshatch type pattern that differentiates itself from the white.

Making the background transparent is preferable, for a sneaky reason. If your editing program does color management (uses .icc profiles), it will apply ink to try to transform the very slight off-white of the paper stock to the "pure" white that you assign to the background. This can produce a thin shadow of color in areas that you want to be clear.