Smart or Generative Erase in Microsoft Designer has returned after an unexplained absence. Use it for graphics or just to fix a photo.
Designers’ Generative Erase can remove people or objects from an image, replacing it with the surroundings. It does a good job doing something that, a few years ago, was only in high-end photo editors.
The feature disappeared from Designer for no given reason, but it’s now back!
Microsoft’s examples of Generative Erase look great, naturally. Office Watch prefers to test ourselves to see Designer working on a real photo and how to export the result back to your computer. With Generative Erase we managed to make a people-free photo of this usually popular staircase.
Go to the Designer home page, look for Generative Erase and click Try it. That opens a simple upload or drag n drop box to upload an image.
Designer has other ways to import an image but this is the fastest way to access Generative Erase.
The photo opens in Designer, choose Generative Erase.
Our test photo is from a recent visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It’s very difficult to get a shot without people on the busy staircase.
Click on the objects you want to remove from photo then choose ‘Erase Object’. You might need to use the Zoom option (top row menu, next to Undo) to see the details more clearly.
Generative Erase is remarkably smart at removing little details around what’s selected. Even though the shadows cast by people weren’t selected, Erase still removed them. A few moments work, there’s a staircase clear of people.
Then the photo can be used in a Design or downloaded back to your computer to use some other way.
In Windows 11
A similar Generative Erase with more options is available in the latest releases of the Photos app for Windows 11. Our ebook Windows 11 for Microsoft Office users explains how the smart erase works plus other AI features in the Photos app and other parts of Windows.
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