Why such poor results with Background Erase?

[Contours]

For some reason, I thought background erase had boundary detection logic that made it easy to isolate images. But my experience over a dozen uses has left me doubting the processing and/or the methods I use.

I'm following exactly the steps show in this article:
http://support.xara.com/index.php?/K...ckground-erase

But my resulting images never have the sharp boundaries it implies I can get.

Admittedly, the range of color (mostly grays) in the image I'm currently working with is low. Nonetheless, there is a clear edge to the image. And I've had artifacts show up even on images with dramatically darker backgrounds. Up to now, I've resorted to tediously outlining an image to get a decent result.

Is there a setting or method I should try?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[angelize]

Here is a video that may help.

[Contours]

Here is a video that may help.

Actually, I had watched that very video before I made my post. It does give a good result, but the page I referenced certainly gave me the impression that a few "identifying swaths" were all that's needed ... and the software would do the rest.

Rather than try "detailed swaths", I'd much rather outline the object and be certain of what I'll get.

I was just expecting more from Xara.

Thanks for responding.

[digitalphaser]

I do not know about the software that can fulfill wishes. Xara removes background is not worse than the other software.
White background can be easily removed with "select colors" tool too.

I personally prefer the shape tool. It takes not much longer than the masking. But the clean result is guaranteed.

[Luke.Hart]

A lot of Contours problems are caused by using a JPEG original (the blocky artifacts are typical of JPEG), but this can be got around by erasing close into the foreground. For example I was able to produce a pass-able background erase of a simular image in a few minutes.

[angelize]

The image I used in my video was a jpeg but it was a fairly high resolution image.