KillWhite
Kill White is a Photoshop Filter that actively removes white from an image (unlike the ‘Multiply’ blend mode), perfectly leaving the rest of the image, whether the image is black-and-white or color.
However, this is not simple masking. Pixels that are partly transparent are altered so as to only remove the white portion. Shadows and gradients will remain in the image, only white is removed.
I made this Filter with my good friend Yael Martiz.
Examples:
Applications:
websites (and pngs),
white Background removal,
sketch and drawing clean up,
cleaning images with alpha (can remove white halos),
art effect.
Tutorials:
http://www.instantfundas.com/2010/09/how-to-completely-remove-white-or.html
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/white-background-removal-with-kill-white-photoshop-plugin/
Video Tutorial:
http://vimeo.com/16617663
Download:
Kill-White (32bit Filter)
Kill-White (Pixel Bender Version) *
32bit Filter should be compatible with all 32bit PC versions of PS that have filters. That would be the 11 past versions (3.0 though CS5). compatibility list
Pixel Bender is the new Filter system for CS4 and CS5 (64 or 32 bit). This version is much more accurate and generally has better results.
* If you choose to install this version, make sure you actually have PixelBender installed on your machine.
locations on 64-bit PC machines:
PixelBender 1.5 (for CS4): ..Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Utilities\Pixel Bender Toolkit\
PixelBender 2.0 (for CS5): ..Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Utilities - CS5\Pixel Bender Toolkit 2\
If you don’t see it, PixelBender can be download HERE for CS5 and HERE for CS4
(Make sure you download the correct version, the CS5 version is not backward-compatible to CS4).
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KillWhite by Mikeal Simburger and Yael Maritz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at mikes3d.com.
74 Responses to “KillWhite”
Kicking ass Thomas Link! This works perfectly on Adobe PS 5.1 on MBP Snow Leapord
Yes, sorry my blog didn’t alert me to your post. The 32 bit version only works on pc, and pixel bender doesn’t work with Elements. So its not going in the case, sorry.
This is such a great filter: thanks for creating something I’ve used so many times. Do you have any plans to port this to CS6, sans Pixel Bender, which they are no longer supporting?
Hey, is there any solution for PSCS6?
totally upset, that PixelBender is discontinued.
thx
A
So – now that I am in need of what looks like just the most perfect and amazing solution… am stymied about getting it to work with CS6 Photoshop Extended (64-bit) – am I missing something?
Any plans to update for CS6?
[...] a trick you can do with the Photoshop filter Mike and Kael’s Kill White (which is an awesome filter for several [...]
[...] time to use the most useful free plug-in there is for an illustrator working with line drawings: Mike and Yael’s Kill White. First off, make sure your image mode is RGB color and that you’re not working on the [...]
I use your Kill White filter all the time. I just finished telling a whole room of SCBWI illustrators about it last weekend and I posted two different blog posts today that talked about it. I think Kill White is the most important Photoshop filter I have. I can’t tell you how much time that one filter has saved me! Thank you for creating it and for making it available for free.
[...] is a Photoshop Plug-in by Mikeal Simburger and Yael Martiz. Read more about the KillWhite filter. Okay, it may not be the coolest tool ever, but it’s close. If your are an illustrator, or [...]
Is the Kill White filter compatible with Photoshop CS6? Thanks for your help.
I have upgraded to the 64 bit version of Web Creative Suite 5.5 and realized I can’t get the eliminate white filter to work. I have read dozens of web sites and blogs to figure it out. I have placed the DLL msvcrt10 in bothe the photoshop folder and the plug-ins folder. Each time I restart PS the filter does not appear. My folder system looks like this:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins.
Can anyone shed some light on this. I suspect I am putting the filter file in the wrong folder but I have dropped it in many different placed as a trial & error effort.
Thank you in advance,
Paul
@Kelly
Sorry about the delay,
Due to a change in CS6, its no longer compatible with 64 bit. I don’t have cs6, but as I understand it the 32 bit version still works. I’ll need to do something very different to get 64 bit compatibility, so it will probably be a while.
Maybe, but it wont be easy.
http://mikes3d.com/extra/2012/09/future-photoshop-filter-development/
@Antonio Walder
I think the 32bit version should still work in CS6. As far as 64bit /mac goes, I wont have anything for a while. Its a tough nut.
@John
I don’t currently have the programming chops to make that happen. I do want to expand comparability somehow. These are my current thoughts on it:
http://mikes3d.com/extra/2012/09/future-photoshop-filter-development/
@Marie
The 32bit version should be compatible on windows. There is no current way I can support this on CS6 Mac.
Hi guys, thank for your hard work.
32bit version works fine in cs6
Greetings from Mexico.
I had some trouble installing this (for CS5), but finally found this tutorial: http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/white-background-removal-with-kill-white-photoshop-plugin/ Just a tip to anyone else that might be pulling their hair.
Looking forward to finding ways to put what seems like a fantastic plugin to use!
[...] on this filter. The filter I use the most in Pixel Bender is from an outside source and is called Kill White – it takes out all the white from an image in a single click. Very handy! (Mike at [...]
Thank you so much for your kill white filter. I’m using it with a program called ArtRage. All I had to do is drop the file in the filter folder and restart the program and I was good to go. I had one image I wanted to remove the background from but it was very intricate around the edges and even with a magic wand it would have been quicker to recreate the image, this time remembering to make to background transparent before exporting and merging layers. But with your filter I was able to save the image and I only had to replace some white highlights in some glass balls. That was very easy from a layer below. I loaded a copy to my website in case you would like to see the image. http://betsymorrow.com/downloads/Christmas%20Wreath%20No%20white%202a.png
One a side note I read your bio and my youngest niece just got her US Navy wings for fixed wing and helicopters earlier this month so I could relate to the love of aviation.
I learned about your filter from the ArtRage forum.
Thanks again.
Betsy
Hi ,
i m looking kill white for cs6 photoshop could any one help me out???
Unfortunately it will only work on 32bit cs6. As a bit of an amateur the built in api for filter programming is a bit daunting. Adobe removed compatibility for making filters with scripting (the easiest way). I’m trying to come up with a method that will do the processing outside of photoshop, once that works 32/64 mac/win wont matter any more. Its taking much research but it will happen.
[...] get the final effect, the image had to be opened in Photoshop CS5 so Mike’s Kill White filter could be run from Adobe’s Pixel Bender filter which only runs on CS4 and CS5. This is one of [...]