Free Adobe Photoshop Website Designing Video Tutorial - Background Eraser and Magic Eraser Tool

In this Free Photoshop Website Designing Video Tutorial, we will show you how to use different "Eraser Tools". The eraser tool acts like a brush, which removes the pixels as you drag your mouse across the image. If the background or a layer with transparency is locked then pixels are changed to the background color, otherwise, the pixels erased to transparency. This Tool is also used to rub out any overlap i.e. if you want to merge two images you can do this easily using Eraser Tool. After merging these images you can use this merged image in your website or anywhere else. Eraser tool also helps us in website designing. If you want to erase any background from an image, which you want to use in your website then choose any eraser tool from the toolbar and erase extra or unwanted area. We suggest that you first view our "Eraser Tool Video Tutorial" to understand this visually and more easily however we have also given steps for using different eraser tools, eraser tool tips and options given in the tool options bar of different eraser tools.

Press “E” to select Eraser Tool. There are 3 types of Eraser Tools i.e. Eraser Tool, Background Eraser Tool and Magic Eraser Tool.

Functions of different Photoshop Eraser Tools:

1. Eraser Tool: Eraser Tool act as a brush and paint the area (on which you drag or click with the mouse) with the background color if the layer transparency is locked or if it is a background layer. Otherwise this will erase the pixels to transparency.
2. Background Eraser Tool: Background Eraser Tool erases the background color and leaves the background as transparent.
3. Magic Eraser Tool: This tool erases all the similar pixels within a tolerance set. There is no need of dragging your mouse just click and make your layer transparent.

Steps for using Eraser Tool

1. Select File > Open.
2. Select Eraser Tool from the toolbar.
3. Set the brush size from the brush menu according to the area which you want to delete and select the tool type you want to use as an eraser from the mode i.e. brush, pencil or block given in the tool options bar. Other available options are Opacity, Flow or Erase to History. All these options are describe below.
4. If you want to use “Eraser Tool” in Erase to History mode, hold down Alt as you drag your mouse in the image.
5. Click and drag through the area, which you want to delete.
   
   

Steps for using Background Eraser Tool

1. Select File > Open.
2. Select Background Eraser Tool from the toolbar.
3. Set options from the tool options bar according to your need i.e. Brush, Limits, Tolerance, Protect Foreground Color and Sampling (describe below).
4. Press Alt + Click to take sample color that is in its center of the click.
5. Now, click and drag through the area, which you want to delete. This will delete the pixels of the sample color or close to this sample color.

Steps for using Magic Eraser Tool

1. Select File > Open.
2. Select Magic Eraser Tool from the toolbar.
3. Set options from the tool options bar according to your need i.e. tolerance, Anti-aliased, Contiguous, Use All Layers, Opacity (describe below).
4. There is no need for dragging your mouse just click on the area, which you want to delete.

Eraser Tool options given in the Tool Options Bar:

When you select any of the focus tools (Blur Tool, Sharpen Tool, Smudge Tool) related tool options appear in the Tool Options bar.These options are described below:

1. Brush: You can set the diameter of the brush using this option.
2. Mode: There are three types of mode: brush, pencil or block. You can choose either of them and use eraser as brush, pencil or block as required by you.
3. Opacity: This defines the strength of the eraser tool. 100% opacity erases the pixels completely.
4. Flow: Flow setting is not available when pencil is selected in the Mode from the tool options bar.
5. Erase to History: To erase a saved state or snapshot of the image, select Erase to History. To use the eraser tool in Erase to History mode, hold down Alt key while dragging the mouse in the image.

Eraser Tool options given in the Tool Options Bar:

1. Brush: To define the brush size.
2. Limits: There are 3 further sub options in the dropdown menu of Limits.
   
   Discontiguous: When this option is selected each pixel of sampled color will get erase which occurs under the boundaries of a brush.
   Contiguous: This will delete the areas that are connected with each other and contain the sampled color.
   Find Edges: This will exactly work like “Contiguous” option but Find Edges will preserve the sharpness of the shape edges.
   
   
3. Tolerance: This controls the range of similar pixels that you want to erase. Broader range of colors can be deleted when you set some higher value of tolerance.
4. Protect Foreground Color: When selected, this will prevent the pixels that match with the foreground color.
5. Sampling: There are three sub options available: Continuous, Once and Background Swatch.
   
   Background Swatch: This will erase the areas that contain background color.
   Continuous: This will erase the pixels continuous to sample colors while you drag your mouse.
   Once: This will delete the sampled color area on the first click.

Magic Eraser Tool options given in the Tool Options Bar:

1. Tolerance: Same as described in the “Background Eraser Tool”.
2. Anti-aliased: Smooth the edges between non-erased and erased areas.
3. Contiguous: Delete the pixels, which are continuous to the first click.
4. Use All Layers: This will erase the color from all the visible layers.
5. Opacity: Using this option you can define the strength of the eraser tool.