Member Avatar for Whilliam

Hello!

I've made an object in paint and saved with jpeg file type.
The thing I notice was that after saving it with jpeg, pixels came out in the background. I don't want pixels because I will put this object in my presentation using macromedia director mx and I will need an all white background so that the background will be easily put away with background transparent.
I dont want to make the object again because it took me four hours to make it. I just want to get these pixels out.
Is there any fast way to get these pixels out? Like making the file type bmp or something?

I have adobe photoshop too..

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

Dani AI

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This thread already hit the key points: JPEG is lossy and Paint’s JPEG output can produce ugly artifacts. is right that you cannot “unsave” the compression; correctly points out the lossy nature of JPG; and ’s BMP-first idea is a good prevention tactic. If you only have the damaged JPEG, you can still salvage a clean object for Director MX using Photoshop — here is a practical, version‑safe workflow.

Open the JPG in Photoshop, double‑click the Background layer to unlock it and work on a duplicate layer. Use Select > Color Range (sample the white/near‑white background and keep Fuzziness low) to grab the background, then invert if needed so the object is selected. Create a layer via copy (Ctrl/Cmd+J) so the object sits on its own layer over transparency. Apply Select > Refine Edge (or Select and Mask in newer PS) to smooth the selection: reduce chatter with a small Smooth, push Shift Edge slightly negative to pull the selection inward, and use a tiny Feather if edges look too sharp.

For remaining halos or color fringe use Layer > Matting > Defringe (1–2 px) or Layer > Matting > Remove White/Black Matte as appropriate. If compression produced stray pixels, add a layer mask and paint them away with a 100% hardness brush at 1–3 px while zoomed in. For very stubborn artifacts, build a selection from the best contrast channel (Channels panel → duplicate the channel with the most contrast → Levels to boost contrast → Ctrl/Cmd+click to load) and convert that to a mask.

When the object looks right, export a copy that preserves transparency (PNG‑24 or a layered PSD/TIFF). If you must supply a white background for Director’s color‑keying, fill the background with pure white (RGB 255,255,255) before saving so your key removes it cleanly. Final note: if you still have the original Paint document, follow ’s BMP→reexport route (or save as PNG/PSD) to avoid this in future — once JPEG artifacts are baked in, masking is the fix, not a perfect restoration.

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Member Avatar for Ezzaral

You can clean it up a bit manually and save it as a bmp or png, but you can't just "unsave" the unwanted pixelation because it is now part of the image.

Member Avatar for almostbob

jpg is a lossy compression format,
the errors introduced are part of the jpg specification for high compression. As Ezzeral said use a non loss form

Member Avatar for PirateTUX

Hmm... I disagree with almostbob's assessment. He's right... JPEG is lossy, but that doesn't necessarily equate to the issue you're seeing.

Paint's JPEG implementation is crud. What I typically do when I want to take something from paint and turn it into a JPEG is first save it as a BMP from paint, then fire up Microsoft Office Picture Manager, and use that to turn the BMP into a JPEG. Picture Manager allows you to choose how high the JPEG quality should be. Crank it all the way to 100% and you'll see none of that extra junk you're talking about.

If you don't have Microsoft Office Picture Manager, don't worry. Download and install GIMP (Google "GIMP" all caps, it'll be at the top of the list). It'll do the same thing for you, and it's free.

Unfortunately, if you don't have a BMP copy (without the extra pixels) of the file, you're going to have to clean it up manually. You may want to play with the GIMP a bit and get to know it, as it is very powerful and might have some tools which could help you clean up the pixelated mess that Paint produces.

Good luck!

Member Avatar for jbennet

Yeah, i agree with PirateTux (if i remember rightly, JPEG support for paint was a hack they put in in order to get active desktop backgrounds working correctly in windows 98, it wasnt intended to have it originally...)

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