After I remove the background of a photo... then what?

O.k. I'm painfully new to graphics editing, so my questions may be very simplistic to most here. I am working on a project for a logo for my after hours business (much more passionate endeavor than just a hobby). On my lunch and breaks at work, I have used a "paint" program to "erase" all of the surrounding elements, leaving only the portion of the image I want to use in my logo. From there, I used GIMP to do some manipulation using a variety of filters available to produce a good foundation image for my logo. (I only have the Xara photo and graphics 9 program on my personal laptop, as the I.T. guy at work has blocked ALL downloads... ugh.) Now I need to copy the image and take it to my laptop at home to begin additional processing. Here is where I get to the unknowns...

I now have an image sitting on a white background. I want to be able to "remove" the white background so the (forgive my lack of technical jargon) "cut-out" image can be imported without a background. Eventually I plan to add text above and below the image in a convex/concave shape, so it somewhat "encircles" the image. (Sorry if my descriptions are vague or confusing.) Finally, I want to "tie" the image and text together into a coherent logo by using a background shape, etc.

Any help on removing the white background would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I dinked around with manipulating text a bit last night with the Xara software. I was able to create text, utilize the 3-D mode and manipulate (rotate, extrude, color) the text. How do I incorporate the image and the text together on the same "clipboard"? (Again, forgive my lack of knowledge/use of correct graphics terminology.) If I am correct, I will have at least 4 components that will need to be combined to create my logo:
1.Concave text above
2. Image
3. Convex text below
4. Background shape to bring all of the elements together

THANKS AGAIN IN ADVANCE!


UPDATE- WOOHOO! I found a youtube video of how to erase a background, which leaves the desired image as an "alpha channel" with a transparent background. Any help with bringing the additional elements together would be greatly appreciated!

How did you save your image? If you erased all the background it must be saved as a png or gif to support transparency, preferably png. Once you have all your images in your Xara software with the selector tool (top one on your toolbar) then either select both using by clicking on one then holding shift select the other as well and group (ctrl G) or group from the arrange menu. Or you can drag select both items and group. No need to put a background around them, just select and group, then export as png. If you did all the previous steps in a raster paint program then it will probably have the jaggies see the 3rd link below. Angelize has a video showing how to erase a background on youtube, Egg Bramhill also has a good one. Both of these are different and depending what you want to do both have their strengths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPU98RcV6J0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8XgHkZo1J8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWxNg374bYI

Thanks. I did have a bunch of stray pixels. I went through the tedious process in GIMP to enlarge the image to 200% and freehand erase as many of the stray pixels as possible. I will take a look at the videos at home tonight. Unfortunately I have always saved any revisions as JPEG files. As I mentioned, I am painfully new to graphics. I'm enjoying what little I am learning by experience, and GREATLY appreciate input here! Thanks for your response!

I do this all the time. For my purposes, I am using Xara Designer Pro 9 to create RPG gaming maps and map icons. Sometimes I use a 3D application to create some complex object - animal, person or other thing. Then I render it, which produces the object with a white background. I import that to Xara, using the Freehand Pen tool I draw an outline at the edge of the object until a complete shape is created and closed. Once completely outlined with a solid shape, then I select both the image and the shape and use Arrange/Combine Shapes/Integrate Shapes, which basically makes my shape the object with the image as the fill texture - the white background is removed. If I needed to add text above, below or on the graphic itself, I do that, no problem. Once everything is created I save it in Xara format. If I need to use the graphic in some other application, I export the file as PNG format, insuring I set the Color Depth to Color + Alpha channel in the PNG export dialog box.

Of course you can always import a PNG image with alpha channel - created in another application, then create graphics and text in Xara using the PNG as part of the image. My explanation above is how I convert an image that doesn't have an alpha channel, rather I cut the background out and end up with a PNG alpha channel image when complete.

Thanks Gamerprinter, I should have specified "set the Color Depth to Color + Alpha channel in the PNG export dialog box", glad you did.

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then I select both the image and the shape and use Arrange/Combine Shapes/Integrate Shapes, which basically makes my shape the object with the image as the fill texture

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or even intersect shapes ;)

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

or even intersect shapes ;)

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Did I say "integrate"?! Oops, I feel dumb. :p