: How can I select transparent parts of a raster image I placed in Illustrator? I have an image. it is an object with a transparent background. how can I make the selection around the object

@Martha945

All bitmap images are rectangles. There's no way to import just the opaque pixels. You'll always have a rectangular bounding box around the image.

You might be able to achieve something close to what you want with a clipping mask.

For instance if you have a photo of a basketball on the ground. Import that into illustrator (file-->place). Draw a circle on top of the basketball and make it the precise size of the basketball. Select both photo and circle and select Object-->Clipping Mask--Make.

You now have a round basketball object. The square shape is still there, but hidden by the clipping mask.

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@Cofer715

As Joojaa said, you are best with tracing your file, you can do this as follows.

Lock you layer and then create a new layer above it.



Use the pen tool (P), holding shift to draw straight lines and clicking and dragging to create a curve. You can then use the Direct Selection tool to select any point you have created and may need to edit.

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