MacMost: Graphics

The Copy Subject tool in macOS lets you lift the subject from the background of a photo or remove the background and leave the subject. You can use this to do a variety of things like make social media profile pictures, Contacts images, iMovie overlays, better presentation backgrounds and more.

The new Lift Subject feature in iOS 16 and macOS Ventura is a great quick way to grab a subject from an image. But for better, more customized results you need to use an app like Photoshop or Pixelmator Pro where you can modify the selection.

Sometimes when you provide a photo to be printed or used in a publication, you will be asked about pixels per inch, or PPI. But PPI isn't really important. Only the number of pixels in the image matters, PPI is just a setting in the file.

When dealing with image files on your Mac, it is useful to know the difference between JPEG and GIF files, what HEIC or HEIF files are, what RAW means, and when to use a PNG file.

Here's how to remove the background from an image using the Preview app that comes with macOS. The Smart Lasso tool does a so-so job, but it is useful to know how to use it in case you only occasionally need to do this and don't wish to purchase another app to edit images.

Here's how to remove the background from an image using Affinity Photo. You can use this to blur the background or replace it.

The Mac app Pixelmator Pro has a variety of tools for removing the background of a photo. The best method is combining the Select Subject tool and then refining the selection with Quick Selection. You can use this to blur the background or replace it.

macOS Monterey includes a new Quick Action to convert images to other file types and resize them without launching an app.

Learn what makes an image transparent and how image pixels work. If you need to make the background or some portion of an image transparent to use it in a document, presentation or as a video overlay, here's how to do it in Pixelmator Pro or Affinity Photo.

The Preview app can be used to view both image files and PDFs. You can also do quite a bit of editing on image files, such as color adjustments, cropping, copy and pasting selections, resizing, markup and exporting into another format.

There are many ways to blur the background of a photo. Here are two methods that use the third-party apps Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo, and then two methods using built-in Mac apps Preview and Keynote.

Remember when Macs came with a basic Paint app? There hasn't been a default app like that for a long while, but you can use Preview and Photos for most things. If you want to be able to draw with pixels, however, you'll need a graphics app. Here are some suggestions, including one that is free and easy to use.

You can use the brush selection tool in Affinity Photo to cut out a subject in a photo. With the subject on a separate layer, you can apply adjustments, filters and effects to just the subject or the background. You can also copy and paste the subject onto another background image.

If you need to open PDF files or just want a decent image editing app that doesn't cost too much or require a subscription, there are plenty of options in the Mac App Store and elsewhere. All of these and 64-bit apps that work with macOS Catalina and beyond. See https://macmost.com/mac-photoshop-alternatives.html for links.

The double exposure effect is an interesting way to combine two ideas in the same image. You can create this by using tools like Photoshop. But on your Mac, there is also a way to do it using Apple's Keynote app. You can cut out an image using Instant Alpha and place another image in that space. You can then blend it with the original image.

Preview is a great tool for viewing image files. But you can do much more than just viewing. In addition to the annotation tools you may already be familiar with, you can also use Preview to export images into a different format, crop, resize and adjust colors. You can even import images from cameras or scanners.

The Mac Color Picker will appear when you want to choose a color in most Mac apps. You'll see it when you want to set the color of text, shapes, adjust images, draw, and many more places. There are several ways to choose colors and some of them are highly customizable.

If you need to draw text along a circular path on your Mac, you'll find you need a third-party app to do it. One general image editing app that will do it is Acorn, available in the Mac App Store at a much lower cost than anything from Adobe. You can easily add text outside or inside of a circle, and make adjustments to the text afterward. You can then export the result to use in any app.

You can create custom folder icons by using only the software that comes with your Mac. By taking the existing folder icon graphic and bringing it into Preview, you can tint the color and then add text, emoji or shapes to create a useful custom folder icon. Changing folder icons can be a little tricky and buggy, however. You can also use graphics apps to create more highly-customized icons and download icons online to use.

If you want to convert a group of JPG image files to a single PDF, you can use a variety of methods. Most people will tell you to use Preview. But there are other ways that are either simpler or more versatile. You can use a Quick Action to do it without even opening up an app. You can also use Pages and Keynote to create richer PDFs with border, text and other features. The best way may be to use Photos which offers a variety of printing options that can be used to create PDFs.