Surely everyone who created a cover (for a book in InDesign) had a question when designing the cover: How to insert a frame, ornament, drop cap so that the background is not visible, but only one pattern is visible?
It's actually not difficult, and I want to show you how to make a border with transparency settings using the Gimp program (analogue of Photoshop - free software) using a simple pattern as an example.
Necessary
Instructions
Step 1
First, load the pattern file into Gimp using the File -> Open command. Select the image with the Crop tool (knife-like) so that only one ornament remains and double-click on the screen to crop.
Step 2
To apply transparency parameters to our pattern, we need to execute the command Edit -> Cut -> Paste -> Paste as New Layer.
Step 3
To more accurately select the background by color, you can use the Color -> Levels command and then drag the triangles, changing the lightness and saturation, while the colors are much more natural than using the Hue-Saturation command.
Step 4
Then select the background using the Select by Color tool (this is done in order to remove the entire background of the same color with one click, including in the gaps between the elements of the pattern). Before removing the background, it is advisable to set a threshold of about 35.5% in the settings. Then press Delete to remove the background.
Step 5
You can change the color of the frame using the Color-Rendering command
Step 6
Now the most important thing is to export the pattern to a file with the.
Step 7
Go to InDesign, place the pattern on the cover using the File-Place command, reduce and resize it using the Object -> Fitting -> Content to Fit command.
Step 8
Now, for beauty, copy the pattern and flip it vertically using the Object -> Transform -> Rotate 180 command and enjoy the result!
