Making backgrounds transparent

[Pandora]

Having graduated up from Corel 7 recently I'm finding this a real challenge. Trying to make a simple arrow but couldn't figure out how to draw lines and join nodes so I've imported one I made in C7 (so much easier!) It's a png, and I need to make the background transparent. I've tried the eraser and the color replacer, nothing seems to work. The Help isn't very good. I can't even work out how to select transparency in the colour palette. Can someone walk me through it? It surely must be just 2 or 3 easy steps! Thankyou

arrow.png

[lata]

I saved your green arrow to open with PSP
Right click the Background layer for Promote Background Layer, now shows as Raster 1
Using the selection tool- I chose Magic Wand
Clicked the white area to select.
Keyboard for Delete removes the white background
File Save as Png

[LeviFiction]

I would like to point out, that if you use the Preset Shape tool there should be a default arrow shape in there.

First thing's first. Lata's method of getting the transparent background, is excellent. If you want to create the PNG with a single color as the transparent color do this File -> Export -> PNG Optimizer. Set Transparency to Single Color and Choose White. Save the result. You should now have a PNG with a transparent background.

To set single color transparency in the current image without saving, the file must be 256-bit palette image color. Image -> Decrease Color Depth -> 256 Color Palette. Now under Image -> Palette -> Set Palette Transparency. This, however, won't transfer to other images. So it's not very useful.

Okay now on to the good stuff, Preset Shape tool. I might get overly simple and pedantic in this explanation just to make sure I cover my bases.

1) The Preset Hape tool is found above the Pen tool, and inside a group. I don't remember if it's the default tool in the group or not but I think it might be. Anyway, if you click on the white triangle next to any of the icons shown in this screenshot you'll see the Preset Shape Tool it looks like a speech bubble.

preset_shape_tool.png

2) On the Tool Options Palette you'll see a drop-down with the picture of the last used shape, by default it's the Speech Bubble shape. Click on this to open it up and see all of the available shapes. Like an arrow that looks almost identical to your example image posted above.

SelectShape.png

3) Make sure the "Create as Vector" checkbox is checked so that you're working with a vector shape. This allows you to edit the shape endlessly. Including colors. But this next step let's you define the colors from the beginning so you don't have to change them later if you don't want to.

4) Next "uncheck" the "Retain style" checkbox. If you leave this checked, the arrow will keep the style it was saved with. If you uncheck it, then you can set the initial colors and stroke width for the vector. On your Materials Palette the Foreground color is the stroke color and the Background Color is the Fill color.

retain_style.png

5) Then just click on your canvas and drag out the shape. You can make it as long, narrow, fat, or short as you want. If you hold the SHIFT key while dragging it'll scale the shape uniformly so it's never squashed.

[Pandora]

Thanks for your replies! Very helpful. I just wish the instructions had an overview that explained why layers have to be promoted and in what circumstances they need to change between raster and vector etc. I mean I understand the difference but it's not always obvious which tools will work with which kind of layer.

[LeviFiction]

Which version of PSP and which instructions were you looking at? While there are things I would change about the overall structure of the help documents in general I find them quite informative. For example they have an entire section on "Working with layer" and "Understanding layers" that gives a fairly in-depth look at the topics, icons, how to recognize which is which and links to other topics related to each layer type and their tools. Including a note that Background layers must be promoted in certain circumstances and will auto-promote in others.

The section on vectors starts with a description of the difference between vector and raster objects, includes on notes on when vector and raster layers will be auto-created if you use the wrong tools on the wrong layers.

For example they note that if you have "Create as" set to vector and you try to draw a vector on a raster layer it'll auto-create a vector layer for you. And, likewise, if you try to paint on a vector layer it'll create a new raster layer for you.

I should have noted in my first post that when it comes to the pen tool both the help documents and I recommend turning on the three checkboxes in the tool options palette: Show Nodes, Connect Segments, Create As Vector.

"Show nodes" makes sure that the nodes you've created are always visible while editing the object, "Connect Segments" will make sure that each click creates a new line. By default PSP will create a single line segment (two nodes connected by one line) and then create a new disconnected line segment. Most people expect it to automatically connect all segments. This checkbox will makes sure it does. And of course "Create on Vector" will make sure it's creating a vector layer for you.