Non-rectangular pictures

Sandgroper · Post by **Sandgroper** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:30 am

Is it possible, with PI X3 - or any other software to create non-rectangular pics? i.e. have an elliptical image without any white rectangle around it .. very useful in creating montages & the like.

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:34 am

Yes you can do that. It's called a frame around the image, or make an elliptical selection, then crop to the selection, viola you have an elliptical image..

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:16 am

It entirely depends on where you want to watch these images. There is no picture viewer which can display your elliptical image on its own. It will always need to have a background to display it on.

TwiceWise · Post by **TwiceWise** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:05 pm

yes it's possible to create a non-rectangular picture, but the only export option (as far as I know) is Gif.

Here are the steps

1. use the lasso selection tool to draw around the portion of the picture you want to export.

2. cut or copy your selection (it doesn't matter which)

3. click on the new image icon to create a new image (you have to specify the background as transparent. Make sure that the new image is large enough to contain the selection you cut out)

4. paste your selection into the new image frame that you made (you should now have your selection surrounded by a gray and white checkerboard background)

5. save the file as a .gif. (PhotoImpact will protest saying that this file format does not support object saving. Ignore the warning and click yes.)

6. You have now created a 256 color image with a transparent background around it. This is particularly useful in desktop publishing where you want just a single element of an image and not all of the objects around it.)

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:54 pm

PNG is another format that supports alpha channel or transparency.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:22 am

So does targa

The creation of an elliptical image and the format to save it in is not the problem for the OP, if I'm not mistaken. If he/she now uses a browser like PEX, WinExpl or picture viewer, this image is going to be shown with a rectangular box around it.

Most people do not understand that that box is not part of their image but a substitute background for the missing one created by the viewer for the purpose of viewing.

Wherever the OP wants to use this image, it will invariably have to be put on some background in any case. You cannot print an image in thin air, can you.

If the substituted background is white and I print that image on white photo paper, what's the difference?

If this image, with the substitute background is used in a video project as an overlay and the transparency/alpha channel settings are correct, only the elliptical image is going to show on the video background.