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Cheap online image masking services: www.clippingimages.com, my first experience

A friend of mine has a webshop where she has a need to get a lot of images masked out from their background. Products which need to be view on the same background, so a masking process is run and you have the product free of background. It is a time consuming process which you simply do not have time to do on your own, if you as her and other webshop owners need to add images to your webshop product catalogue. She has been using many online masking service companies, and when she told me about www.clippingimages.com I was impressed with the service goals they offer!

The images

Here is information about one of the images:

image image image

What do you get?

I do not want to rewrite the whole offers from www.clippingimages.com here, you may instead visit the site and see the current prices and offers. At the time of writing however the price is around $5 for a image masked out. The speed of delivery is ofcause also a parameter, and in my case I recieved the images the same day (!) as I subitted them (3 images). I took the offer to get the first 3 jobs for free, so that I could evaluate the quality, that in it self is a great deal!

How does it work?

The process is going on through their webapplication (their homepage):

  • You create a free profile on their webpage
  • Uploade images
  • Specify how you want them back (PSD, TIFF or other) and how quick you need them
  • You recieve a quotation (price)
  • You accept and at pay using paypal (I guess, as I got my first 3 images for free)

The tests I did

  • The support is perfect
  • The masking is well, not 120%. It is ofcause better that I could have done it, but they are pros, it is a professionel service and I would expect it to be perfect. I know that am being very strict here, and I think that 98% of all users would find the result perfect.

I got 3 types of result, and tried to open them with

image image image
www.irfanview.com www.xara.com www.gimp.org
  • Irfanview wll only render the PSD files correctly, but remember that it is a free program.
 Using masked images and Xara Designer Pro 6 you create things which normally only can be done in DTP programs, watch the text flowing around the images!

 GIMP handles, not supricingly, the PSD version perfectly!

  • GIMP handles, not supricingly, the PSD version perfectly!

This is a TIFF version loaded into GIMP. The clipping path has been converted to a selection, inverted and cleared.

  • TIFF with clippingpath is also handlet perfectly
  • The JPEG with clippingpath however was not handled correctly.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that the masking service delivered by www.clippingimages.com is a superb service, delivered at a low cost, high quality and high speed. With prices starting at $2 per masked image and with a very responsive 24/7 service I will have no problem recommending them.

A litle comment

Even if I find the service superb, I cant help feeling a litle split in my mind. The reason is that the low price because of the low wages undermine the same services in my own contry. It is leading to people loosing there jobs. It is nothing new that this is happening and it is a natural thing, even so – I feel a litle sad for the people in my country who is loosing their job in this area.

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