Isolate, select and copy/paste elsewhere....

[Priskaa]

Hello forum !

I'm completely new to GIMP so I fear my questions will be very basic...
Thanks in advance for those who will have patience with me 

My first challenge : I have a round object (say, a large smiley) on a square jpg, white background.
I can select the object easily, but how can I remove the background ?
I tried adding a layer without background but get the full square each time I copy onto this new layer...

[Tas_mania]

Try Select > Invert 
then Edit > Clear.
It can help to apply an alpha channel to your layer (jpg)

[sallyanne]

Also if you do not want a coloured or white background export it as a .png as jpg's do not support transparency.

[Ofnuts]

For best results, see https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Backgr...r-graphics