So I am working to update my company's knowlewdge-base articles, and we are refreshing a lot of the images attached to them. One of the things I am trying to do is update the "bullet points" inserted into the imaged by Snagit. We just have the base version which only has 3 styles of numbers images, anxd that just won't cut it.

So I was looking around online and found some images for bullet points I liked, but they are all vector images, and I have ZERO editing or image manipulation experience or tools to do anything with. I would need to pull each image out and edit the colors to match our company's official color pallete.

My other option is to use the images for bullet points that I made using MS Paint (don't laugh...it's what I had to use. lol). So now I have 10 files for a design that I am REALLY liking and think would be highly received by our project lead as well...but again, need to cut them out so all I have is the image and not the background.

The issue....it is a round image. circle over a larger half circle look. I am attaching images to show what I am talking about.


Can anyone help me with getting this done so I can present a final template for my company to use going forward with this project? Trying to get this design finalized and presented in the next few days.

If I understand the problem right, you need to either make the image background match the page background or make the image background transparent. The last would be the best option. I don't know what Paint is capable of, but you'll find lots of (free) software that can do the job. Surely you must be allowed to install an image editor? If not, maybe you can do it on your own computer.

Yes, I think it is the second option of making the background transparent. Problem is, my company does not like letting anyone install software NOT related to business needs on ANY computer. I had to be able to add the Windows Classic Shell to my Windows menu because I can't stand and have a hard time finding my way around the Win8 based menu.

I downloaded Adobe Illustrator over the weekend at home to try to get the image separate from the background, but I am just not good enough to get it cleanly separated 100% to create a single image with a transparent background to use by itself. Hard to do with only a mouse and a hand that shakes like the Waco Kid from Blazing Saddles.

Use the fill tool (I think it's called). Usually looks like a bucket that paint is poured from. With the right settings you should be able to fill the background with a solid color. Maybe you need to do some pixel work first just to the right of the orange half circle where the sphere is a very light gray. Choose a strong color that doesn't exist in the image for the background, for example puke green. Then you make the green transparent.

I used the magic wand to select the background, tolerance set to 0. As you see it's just a small section between 12 and 1 o'clock that needs to be redrawn manually.

Doesn't the image contain anti-aliasing? Then maybe PNG alpha transparency is required to avoid jagged boundary lines.

I think it would be easier to do 3 simple geometric selects, rather than try to tweak the magic wand selection:

A circle selection for the orange half-circle.
A rectangular subtraction to remove the right half of the orange half-circle.
A circular addition to restore the center ball.

I don't think the shapes are perfect circles. But if you have a selection tool that does ellipses and can be nudged to fit...

The really best way is probably to edit the original, if it still exists, and change the background color there.