Creating transparent colours?

maffooo · Post by **maffooo** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 2:48 am

Hi,

i wish to make white a transparent color in one of my objects / images so when i overlay it on another image everything that isnt white will show.

how is this done?

any help appreciated =]

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 3:04 am

Create your white object and adjust transparency...

Which version of PI?

maffooo · Post by **maffooo** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:40 am

PI10.

i dont understand? with more transparency the quality of image underneath is lost.. i want the white in the foreground image GONE (so the rest can overlay)..

unless theres something im missing

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:16 am

I don't understand what it is you are trying to do, sorry.

maffooo · Post by **maffooo** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:13 am

The whites in the image i wish to make transparent, the rest of the image i dont want any transparency.. this is for the overlay of part of a roadmap onto another image, with transparency on everything it looks pretty rough

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:24 am

I'm still not with you, what is the image format?

Only gif, png, tga and tiff allow for transparency. You have to save as a transparent image and select the color which is to be transparent.

klowther · Post by **klowther** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 2:19 pm

maffooo,

I'm using PI12 but I think PI10 is the same in this regard. Bring up the object properties window for the foreground object by selecting the forground object in the layer manager and hitting ctrl+shift+enter. On the general tab there should be a check mark labeled 'transparent color'. Turn that on and the color that shows in the box to the right of the check mark will now be transparent. Click on the color box to select a different transparent color value.

Sorry if I misunderstood your question.

- Ken

maffooo · Post by **maffooo** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:17 pm

thanks, that sounds like it makes sense.. however in the object properties, no matter what i do the only way i can close it is by pressing cancel :S 'Ok' doesnt do anything.

buggy software?
hmm

RuddiforthM · Post by **RuddiforthM** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:07 pm

I have a similar problem with PI 12.
I want a gradient to go to fully transparent in order to create vignettes with a white or colored outer edge.
The vignette tool only allows for a black / grey outer edge.
A gradient going from color to transparent used with the eliptical or square tool with the transparent set to centre would do the trick.
(Another well known editing package has this feature which is where I go to do this at the moment).
Just joined this forum to ask this question and do not know the etiquette of mentioning the competition.

cinmcw · Post by **cinmcw** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:43 pm

I think I understand the question because I asked the very same question here some time ago and no one really understood what I meant. It was difficult for me to explain at the time, as well. Maybe now I can explain it a bit more clearly.

How can we remove the white background from an image such as clipart so that the image has no white background (as is the case with .png formatted images or psp tubes)? I know we can cut out the white background, but that is time-consuming and tedious. Is there an easier way?

On the same note, I wanted to know if it is possible to place multiple images (each with no white background, for example, 12 different Christmas ornaments) on one page and save the entire page in .png format rather than .psd format so that when it is opened, there is no white background and each image can be moved freely from the others.

It seems this "dilemma" is an easier task in some of the other popular graphic programs. There are others who have asked me the same questions and no one seems able to find an answer.

Thanks very much for your help!

Cindy

heinz-oz wrote:I'm still not with you, what is the image format?

Only gif, png, tga and tiff allow for transparency. You have to save as a transparent image and select the color which is to be transparent.

TwiceWise · Post by **TwiceWise** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:05 pm

Is there a reason why you can't open the second image, use the magic wand tool to select the white areas, invert the selection and then copy and paste the photo onto the first image. I think that's probably the easiest way to remove a certain color from an image.

- TwiceWise

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:08 pm

I think you are chasing your tail. If you have a transparent background, it is transparent. The problem is that no image viewer can show you an image without a background. Every viewer I know of will show a background, usually white, when there is a transparent background.

The only way to do this is if you put your images on another background, one of your choosing. By altering that background, you will notice that you do have, in fact, a transparent background for your designs because these will show your chosen background image through their own transparent background.

The more one tries to explain it, the more confusing it becomes..

The fact of the matter is, you can have a transparent background for objects in an image, the image itself will always have a background imposed by the viewer you use to look at that image. A digital image will always be a square/rectangular shape. Transparency only comes into it if you place it over another background.

RuddiforthM · Post by **RuddiforthM** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:31 pm

Yes I understand that you need to have canvas onto which you can place tranparancies. Must check if transparancies become available in gradients when managing objects.
I resolved my vignetting issue using Photo / Lens Filter / Spot Filter. Not totally satisfactory but it worked. (The Hand Book totally ignores Spot Filter).

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:04 am

@cinmcw

Let me try to explain it with the help of some images. Click on the thumb nails to get a larger image.

I took a screen print of our forum header and cropped it in PI

Then I created a new image with a transparent background in PI. The image below shows both images open in PI (screen shot). Note the transparent background in the one with the word "Example"

When I click on the word "Example" in PI and drag the word over to the background image, Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v on the background is the same, I will get this.

However, when I only look at the saved png of the image with the word "Example" in an image viewer program, it will look like this

Placing the image code of the png image image here in my post, the transparency shows again because the png image is placed on this, our forum background.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:10 am

RuddiforthM wrote:Yes I understand that you need to have canvas onto which you can place tranparancies. Must check if transparancies become available in gradients when managing objects.
I resolved my vignetting issue using Photo / Lens Filter / Spot Filter. Not totally satisfactory but it worked. (The Hand Book totally ignores Spot Filter).

You are talking about something entirely different here. Can you post a screen shot of what you are trying to achieve?

I have created masks in PI with gradients to control transparency. It works quite well. The only problem is that PI can only use masks created with 8 bit grey scale gradients. The mask will cut off the moment your gradient goes to white which is fully transparent.