If you then tap “Delete,” it’ll leave the background and remove the image. Next, tap the Delete key on your keyboard to remove the selected portion (and if you’re not working with a file that’s already in PNG format, you’ll have to convert it).Īnother nifty option instead of deleting the background would be to choose Edit > Invert Selection to select everything except what you highlighted. If you get it wrong, just click and drag again to re-select. That’d be “taking a class in Photoshop” time.Īnyway, once you’re satisfied that your dragging has grabbed the part of the image you’d like to get rid of, let go of your mouse or trackpad button, and Preview will select what you highlighted. If you try to get rid of some green grass that surrounds a green plant, you’re…well, you’re not going to have an easy go of it, let’s put it that way. You’ll click and drag within the background of your image, and as you drag further, Preview will select more and more and will highlight it in pink as you go.īecause Preview uses color similarity to determine what to select as you drag, this feature is ideal for removing backgrounds that contrast well with the central image. This next part requires a little bit of finesse. Then the toolbar will show up, and you can use that “Instant Alpha” option. Once Preview opens, if you don’t see the toolbar with the “Instant Alpha” magic-wand icon, click on the “Markup” button to reveal it. (And if that didn’t work, use the “Open With” feature I mentioned in this tip.) For the most part, this just means you’ll double-click on the file by default, image types like JPEGs will open with that program. What you’ll do first is open your image in Preview.