How do I make a white area of an imported jpeg image transparent?

[Madmaxneo]

This is in PSP 2020. I have a black object on a white background where I need to make the white area transparent.

I also need to create an outline of the same image and then save the outline as it's own image. The outline will be then be imported into the Cricut Design Space so I can have the Cricut machine cut out a stencil for marking it into a game table.

[LeviFiction]

If it's already a B&W image, and if the Cricut can use SVG I might recommend using a vector tracing program like PoTrace. There are web options that are easier, but PoTrace is the one I'm familiar with. It's commandline but pretty simple to use. It requires a B&W image, and will trace a vector in the shape of the black area. You can tell it to export in several formats like SVG. I once made a script for PSP that converted selections to vector paths using this method.

Potrace Download - http://potrace.sourceforge.net/#downloading

And of course you can take this object into a vector editor like Inkscape and get it to make an outline pretty easily.

Anyway, here's how to do what you want in PSP.

There are a few options you can take advantage of. The big thing is at the end you'll be on a full raster layer. JPGs open as a background layer which doesn't support transparency. So each method I describe below wiill either promote the background layer itself or work on a second layer.

1) Magic Wand Tool - The magic wand tool will select colors that match the area you sample. You can use this to delete an aerea.
Promote Background Layer
Grab Magic Wand tool (it's in the selection tools, click the arrow next to the selection tool to see the other selection options)
Click on the white area of the layer, if ti's not doing a good enough job, make sure to uncheck "contiguous" (this means only areas that are touching get selected, turning it off matches the color across the whole image) and adjust the tolerance.
With the white area sufficiently selected, hit the Delete button to delete the contents of the selection.

The reverse of this is also possible.
Select the black areas.
Promote the selection to a new layer
Delete the background layer.

2) Paste As Transparent Selection - This one only works if it's a solid black outline. If it's fuzzy or a gradient it won't work.
Select White as the background color on the Materials Palette
Add a new blank layer
Hit Ctrl + A (Select All)
Select the Background layer
Hit Ctrl + C (Copy)
Select the new blank layer
Hit Ctrl + Shift + E (Paste as New Transparent selection)
Click to place the selection where you want it on the new layer
Delete the background layer

3) Background Eraser Tool - This tool is meant to erase backgrounds, from complex ones, to solid colors. And it obviously does better on solid colors.
Promote Background Layer.
Grab the Background Eraser tool (it's in the same button as the eraser tool, just click on the arrow next to the tool to open the other tools inside the button)
Click and drag the brush with the center near the edge of the person, sampling the background color. You want the brush outline to be going over the edge so that it can detect where the object is.
Then drag around the entire object and you should end up with an areas

4) Object Extractor - Introduced in later versions of PSP the object extractor was meant to make it easy to separate an object from it's background. Especially if doesn't have a solid outline as it will attempt to de-mux colors just like the background eraser tool does.
Promote Background to Layer
Image -> Object Extractor
With the brush select the edges of the object
Wtih the paint bucket, click inside the object
Hit the Process Button to see the results (hit the Hide Mask checkbox to see it better)
Adjust the slider to get more precision, or go back to try making the lines and fills again to get better results.
When done, hit the OK button.

All should leave you with a black object on a transparent background.

Once you have that, creating an outline is also possible with several methods. Including using the Pen tool to trace the object. But I prefer to use the selection option.
Select the black object - Either with the magic wand tool, or if you already have an active selection of the background just invert the selection.
Selections -> Modify -> Select Selection Borders (this can be slow in PSP)
Create a blank layer
Fill the selection with black. You'll now have a layer that is just the outline, and an layer that is just the object. You can hide one layer and save the result as a PNG, the reverse this and save the other layer as a PNG so you have copies of both.

[Madmaxneo]

Thanks for the great suggestions!
I downloaded Potrace just in case but have not installed it yet.
I am wondering if I even needed to make the background transparent because all I need is an outline to work with on this.

For now I am trying your suggestions for within PSP.
I was able to change the background just fine using the Magic Wand Tool. I did run into a little issue when trying to delete the white area as I looked for a delete option in the left click menu and thought I did something else wrong..lol.

Now I am having an issue just creating an outline. I get to the point where you say to create a new layer and there are several options (raster layer, vector layer, art media layer, etc) for this but nothing that says just "create new layer". I tried with creating a new raster layer but I don't see an option to fill with black.

Apologies but the last time I used PSP was way back in the late 90's...lol.

[LeviFiction]

Raster layer is what you want, it defaults to empty with no color. If you want to fill with black use the fill tool.

[Cassel]

If it is black and white, you might upload the image to Cricut space and simply remove the white background there before the file is saved.