has a transparent back ground, but whenever i open an image like this in PSP the background always shows black. i always have to open it in PS and save it as a full colour png.
similarly when i save a gif the reverse is true. i'm sure it's me. and something about standards in gif that i haven't understood. i hate gifs, but sometimes you have to....
To my knowledge, the only file format the PSP x4 support for a transparent background is PNG. that should explain why you see black background with that image above.
i find that truly bizarre. the gif optimizer doesn't work properly. the code may as well be removed.
every other graphics package can handle transparency in gif. literally all of them. for those of is that use psp in web or software design they are something we have to live with.
back in the day i used to use psp 7 to make gifs with transparency i wonder when it was removed.
Just did some little tests and GIF transparency seems to work fine in X4. The brain nobbler perhaps is that GIF isn't transparent in quite the same way as PNG and other fancier formats.
GIF images have a fixed palette of 256 (or less) colors. To make a GIF with transparency, you need to pick one color in your image that will be treated as transparent. So, instead of working on an image in PSP where you can see that checkered background that means transparent, what you want for a GIF is an image where there's a unique solid color background. A good idea it to just make an extra layer right at the bottom and fill it with your chosen color. It should be a color that isn't going to appear in anywhere at all in the rest of the image.
Once you're ready, go to the PSP menu -> Image -> Palette -> Set Palette Transparency. Choose "Set the transparency value to palette entry", click the color picker box beside that and then click any of the pixels that make up the colored background of your image. Now click okay.
Nothing happens at first but you can get PSP to show you this kind of "palette transparency" as if it were regular transparency. Go back to the menu again -> Image -> Palette -> View Palette Transparency.
With that switched on you should see your image with the bits that'll become transparent clearly showing up with the familiar checker pattern.
Save it as a GIF, and this special palette transparency will stick and will work just fine in browsers and any other programs that support transparent GIF images.
flagpole wrote:i'm away from the computer that has PSP at the moment. but thanks for your advice.
i was under the impression that the gif optimizer was able to do this for you. but maybe i was wrong.
what about opening gifs? like the one posted. is there a way to do that?
Your image background shows as black in PSP because that's the color that is set for the transparency. I checked. Also, when I choose "View Palette Transparency", the background is transparent. It seems to me that it's working as it should.
Using Paint Shop Pro versions 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16
right thanks all. i've had a play and i can see what's going on.
it's certainly an odd implementation. but i can follow it.
what i frequently have to do is modify old graphics in gif form with transparency and then update as png. in PS all you do is drag in the image, and increase colour depth and your away with a 24bit colour image with transparency. from what i can see in PSP i have to select to view the pallet transparency. select the transparent section, promote the back ground layer, increase colour depth and delete the selection????
Would be nice if the program did this for you.