A Filter that takes out the white?

[GregS.]

hello everyone again.

I remember seeing a post here a few months ago that had a link to a Photoshop filter that could take out the white of a drawing. Does anyone know what i am talking about. I used to use it for my pencil and ink scans.

Can anyone help me?
thanks in advance

~Greg

[Pav]

you can do this by creating new layer on top of drawing and changing "blending mode" to overlay or multiply, if I understand you right

[GregS.]

I mean like if you have a drawing with black lines and nothing else, the filter will change everything but the black lines into tranparency

[Aly Fell]

The filter is called Remove White and it works a treat. You can get it here:

http://www.photoshop-filters.com/html/macks.htm

Some people had a couple of problems with it, but it's worked for me in a couple of different versions of Photoshop. There is another which you could find elswhere called Eliminate white. I used this for a while but you have to adjust the contrst of the linework afterwards. Remove White seems to avoid this problem. Don't forget to have you artwork on a layer for it to work.

[GregS.]

For some reason i cannot use that filter.. maybe because i am using CS3? i install it in C:\Program files\adobe\Abode photoshop cs3\plug-ins\filters..

is there something i am doing wrong?

[ItsChoco]

If you're using Windows, try going to C:\Windows\System, and check for a file called msvcrt10.dll. If it's not there, you can download it all over the web, or it's on the CS3 install disk in subdirectory of Goodies. Put it in the system folder and try restarting CS3.

If it's still no good, try finding plugin.dll in the CS3 base directory and copy it to the filters folder where you have the custom filter and restart the program. And as Posh said make sure it's on a layer that isn't the background, if it's on the background just double-click and unlock the BG to make it a normal layer, then run the filter and it should work fine.

[GregS.]

Wow thanks ItsChoco! It works eureka! I am curious as to what the msvcrt10.dll does that i can use the filter. But wow thanks again

[ItsChoco]

Msvcrt10.dll is just a library of runtime functions for programs written in (I think) Visual C++. Occasionally PS will need this to run foreign or over/under-sized plugins that are otherwise incompatible. Glad it worked for you though. :)

[Justin.]

The first post works just fine... You set the lines layer to Multiply, and anything you put under it, the white is transparent. I really can't think of any reason you'd need it on a transparent background?

[ItsChoco]

I've used it before to streamline making transparent-background gifs or pngs starting from lines, I imagine there are other uses as well, I just can't think of them.. :)

[Edicius]

this post will come into use for me. possibly save me a lot of time in the future. thanks