transparent background opens with black background

[jhearcht]

PSP8 on Windows 10

I erase the background of a JPG image, and export it as a PNG image with transparency. When I open the PNG file in PSP it has a black background. When I open the PNG file in another graphics app it has a white or gray background. Why doesn't the transparency stick? I want to add a new layer that will show through the clear background.

How can I make a transparent background in PSP that will open in any app with a clear background?

A sample file is attached.

[Radim]

I opened a PNG image and applied: Layers - New Mask Layer - From Image...
Then I saved under a new name as PNG. Closed image and reopened saved PNG - now with transparency OK.

[LeviFiction]

Are you on PaintSHop Pro 8 or PaintShop Pro X8? The X means 10 in Roman Numerals so X8 is version 18 of PaintSHop Pro. It helps to know which version you're actually using.

To answer your question, the PNG that you uploaded there is an 8-bit (256 indexed color) PNG file. PSP does not support true transparency in 256 indexed color images. If you go to Image -> Palette -> View Palette Transparency (SHIFT + V) PSP will give you a preview of the transparency but that's all it will do. If you copy and paste it into another image the black background will re-appear. If this were a regular PNG with full color transparency you would not be having this problem. PSP supports full color transparency just fine.

Now Radim's option is a good one for this image, it won't work for all PNGs like this but it will work for this one specifically. Really quick though, in Radmi's image above you see he has "Source Limunance" selected on the Add Mask From Image dialog. For this image you should use the option "Any non-zer value" as that will simply make all of the black areas transparent.

[photodrawken]

Now Radim's option is a good one for this image, it won't work for all PNGs like this but it will work for this one specifically. Really quick though, in Radmi's image above you see he has "Source Limunance" selected on the Add Mask From Image dialog. For this image you should use the option "Any non-zer value" as that will simply make all of the black areas transparent.

Radim's image shows that areas within the hands have become transparent, which is probably not wanted. Wouldn't your suggestion have the same problem?

An interesting thing:

If I simply copy the image from within the browser and paste it into PhotoLine as a new image, the background surrounding the hands is indeed black:

hands copied from browser.png (10.38 KiB) Viewed 6988 times

However, if I save the image from within the browser as a PNG, that saved PNG opens in PhotoLine with the transparency as expected:

[LeviFiction]

My suggestion would do similar yes. But only around the fingernails. If you download the image and show the transparency that's how the actual image looks. It's the reason I mention Radim's option works for this image. It won't work for most images. I actually made a script that restores the full transparency from the PNG image itself. I need to remember to post that sometime.

You could use the magic wand tool to select the black background and delete the background that way. This would avoid the issue of black portions around the fingernails being deleted and create a much smoother result.

1) Promote background layer to full raster layer
2) Grab Magic Wand tool - Mode: RGB Value, Tolerance: 5, Contiguous: on, Feather: 0, anti-aliasing: on
3) Click in black area of the background
4) Hit delete

But the actual transparency of the full image, looks exactly the same as if you used "Only non-zero values" in the mask from image command. So it depends on what you want.

[jhearcht]

PSP X8 on Windows 10

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try several methods to get a transparent background.
Apparently, the 8 bit color depth was the reason I didn't get a permanent clear background. After I saved it as 24 bit PNG, the removed background was clear when opened in a graphics app.

The attached file has a clear background in my app I hope it looks OK in yours. I had to manually add the ziggy outline, since the edges are not contiguous, and I couldn't find an effect that would trace just the outer edge.