Paint.NET: crop objects in pictures

Even without professional knowledge you can cut objects out of your pictures in Paint.NET. This practical tip shows you how it works.

Paint.NET - crop image

To crop an image, you only need the common tools of Paint.NET. These are on the shortcut [F5]. In our picture gallery you can follow the individual steps again using an example.

1. Mark the desired object generously with the "Rectangular Mask". Now click on "Copy" in the "Edit" tab.
2. Create a new layer under "File" -> "New ..." and insert the cut object via the "Edit" tab.
3. Select the "Eraser" from the tools and remove the remaining background roughly with a high brush strength.
4. Use the Magic Wand tool to remove any remaining areas. Set the tolerance scale to approximately 30-50%. Depending on the similarity of the background color, you have to choose a higher or lower tolerance value.
5. For fine work, use the "eraser" with a small brush thickness to remove the remaining pixels on the edges.
6. Now mark the finished object with the "Rectangular Mask".
7. To integrate your object into another picture, for example, select the "Edit" sub-item "Paste into new layer".
8. You can call up the layers of an image using the [F7] key.

Tips for Paint.NET

• If you accidentally removed too much with the eraser, the key combination [CTRL] + [Z] will help you. This will undo the last step and save you having to click the button.
• The tolerance scale for the magic wand tool determines the tolerance for marking color transitions. If the background color is very similar to that of the object, choose a lower tolerance than if the background is not the same color.
• If you do not want to complete the processing in one piece, you can also save your project as a Paint.NET file (.pdn). In this way you can continue editing at a later time.
• Note that you insert the object in a new picture with "Paste into new layer", because the transparent fields remain when you paste with "Paste".
• With [F7] you open the "Layer" window. There you can select and move the different image layers again.

We will explain in another practical tip how you can use additional plugins in Paint.NET.