How to cut out individual jigsaw pieces from an image

[Grimmando]

Say I had an image of a jigsaw puzzle, something like this:

 

 

Can I use Paint.NET to cut out individual pieces of the puzzle? What I'm trying to say is that, I have the above picture, and I need 25 images (each with one piece of the puzzle). Is that possible to do? If so, can someone give me information on how to do it?

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Welcome to the forum Grimmando.

I can't think of an easy way to do this, except for the manual method: cutting out each part and erasing the unnecessary bits.

If you make a rectangular selection around a piece, you can copy it with Ctrl + C then paste it into a new layer with Ctrl + Shift + V. All the same - it's going to take some time.

Now if you had the image on one layer and the edges on another it would be a much easier task. Perhaps selecting all the edges (magic wand) and copying them into another layer would work. The idea here is that you can select the centre of the piece on the edges layer then activate the image layer and Ctrl + C / Ctrl + Shift + V.

[BoltBait]

Is the puzzle piece overlay on its own layer?

If so, you can easily do this with the magic wand.

[skullbonz]

You could magic wand the black lines and delete them but if you want to move the pieces separately  you need to do it a bit differently. Magic wand the black lines and Edit/Cut, then Edit/Paste in New Layer. Now on the black line layer use the Magic wand set on Global mode and click inside a piece. Now add a layer and fill those pieces outlines with white or some other color besides black. This layer will be your pattern for moving the pieces. You can delete the black line layer if you don't need it. Now on the pattern layer click on one of the pieces with the magic wand in contiguous mode and then move to the puzzle layer with the highlighted the puzzle piece. Now you can just use the Move Selected Pixels tool and move it around but you may want it on a different layer. To do that when you have the piece selected and are on the puzzle layer go to Edit/Cut and then Edit/Paste on New Layer and then use the Move selected Pixels tool.  You can repeat this step for as many pieces as you want.  Delete the pattern layer when you're done. Hope this helps out.  

 

Also I noticed you might have a hard time with the magic wand locking on the black eye. You will have to manually on the puzzle layer use the Eye Dropper tool and sample the color on one side of the eye where the line hits the eye,then use the paint brush to cut the line so to say. Them move to the other side and do the same. Then you should be able to lock on just the lines.

Edited June 17, 2014 by skullbonz

[Pixey]

Hi Grimmando - I hope these steps will be useful to you to make a puzzle out of a picture, and to save each piece as you want.

I went to Google here to find a puzzle.

1. Import puzzle picture
2. Import the image
3. Uncheck the image
4. Go to the puzzle layer and magic wand, with shift key, select the puzzle layer. All should be selected. Invert selection.
5. Go to your image and un-check it, invert selection and press delete
6. Go to Effects – Object edge at Blur radius 5.

http://i.imgur.com/np4DWPS.png

7. Uncheck the Background layer and the puzzle layer and erase between the cut outs, so that none are touching each other. Then with your magic wand, select each piece and go to Edit and Cut
8. and paste on a new layer

http://i.imgur.com/mjkeUh2.png

To end up with this for each piece saved.

http://i.imgur.com/fRZII5n.png

Hope it helps

[pdnnoob]

If you don't have the outlines of the pieces on their own layer, you can select the line using the magic wand tool (play with the tolerance setting until you get only the line), copy it, and paste it to a new layer.

Then, you can just follow the last paragraph in EER's post.