Remove subtitle bars and corner badges from news and social screenshots

News grabs and social screenshots arrive with luggage: a lower-third name plate, a scrolling ticker, a channel bug, a “Follow” chip in the corner. You want the scene — not the chrome. The trick is to erase the overlay as text (or text-like UI) and keep the picture behind it.

What usually sits on the frame

• Subtitle / caption bars along the bottom.
• Corner watermarks and app logos.
• Breaking-news tickers and time bugs.
• Repost stamps and “screenshot” labels from messaging apps.

A clean workflow

1. Crop only if you truly do not need the edges — cropping throws away context erase might have used.
2. Run All text first; many bars and badges are detected as lettering.
3. If a solid colour bar remains after the glyphs go, brush that strip and run again — bars are graphics, not always “words.”
4. Use Select text when you must keep a headline in-frame but drop the ticker under it.
5. Compare at 100% along the bar edge; soft mush there is the usual tell that the mask stopped short of the shadow.

When the bar is mostly graphic

An opaque lower-third with a tiny name is half shape, half type. EraseText is a text eraser — it will clear the letters; a full-bleed coloured slab may need a brush pass over the slab itself. That is still faster than cloning a city street by hand under the bar.

Rights and taste

Removing a broadcaster bug for a private edit board is one thing; republishing stripped news footage as if it were yours is another. Clear overlays for layout and research; do not launder someone else’s reportage.

Try it on a real capture

Drop a noisy screenshot into EraseText, clear the bar and the corner badge, and see whether the plate still reads as one photograph. Free to try; results in a few seconds.