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ATTN: Photoshop users!
- Thread starter rocketman
- Start date
ReactionTimes
Nitro Member
I have Photoshop, but rarely use it. Let's see how much help I can be. 
How are you saving the image? What extension?
How are you saving the image? What extension?
I think you have to save the background as a layer with a transparent property. So you cant just 'knock out" the background. By default it will still show as white or in the palate as a Grey. Open up the Photoshop help dialog and search for background, transparent
Last edited:
The Mighty
Nitro Member
Rich,
First you must make sure you have a transparent background layer. When opening a "new" file make sure you select "background contents - transparent"
But no doubt you're real problem is in how you're saving the file. I presume whats happening is that you are saving as a jpeg. Jpegs do not support transparency and as such the image will be saved onto a white background. If you are saving for web you would be best to use gif format if you really need the transparency although you will do doubt have some antialiasing issues as most people who produce transparent gifs find. TGA's also suport transparency if you're using for texturing in 3D. The best way to "eliminate" the background is to save your image onto an image of the background (or just the background colour if plain) then just make sure your placement lines up in your webpage/other application doing away with the need for transparency.
CP
First you must make sure you have a transparent background layer. When opening a "new" file make sure you select "background contents - transparent"
But no doubt you're real problem is in how you're saving the file. I presume whats happening is that you are saving as a jpeg. Jpegs do not support transparency and as such the image will be saved onto a white background. If you are saving for web you would be best to use gif format if you really need the transparency although you will do doubt have some antialiasing issues as most people who produce transparent gifs find. TGA's also suport transparency if you're using for texturing in 3D. The best way to "eliminate" the background is to save your image onto an image of the background (or just the background colour if plain) then just make sure your placement lines up in your webpage/other application doing away with the need for transparency.
CP
The Counterfeiter
Nitro Member
That is not correct. Flatten the image, use the Magic Wand to select everything you don't want to include in the "knocked out" image and select
"Export Transparent Image" from the Help Menu. Click - "I have selected the area to be made transparent" (this is not, for some reason, the default).
Options are pretty clear from that point. I would recommend saving the image as a tif file. If you haven't been through Photoshop training, there is no way you will ever figure out how to do this!
Give it a try - if ya can't get it to work, send me an email!
Jim Young - Competition Commercial Printing
An Adobe "Authorized Service Provider"
The Mighty
Nitro Member
I'm sorry Jim but that is not correct either...
Maybe time for further "photoshop training"
Rich was quite obviously talking about about web-transparency and the only two file formats which support this are the .gif and .png (24bit) formats. The .gif is commonly used because of its relatively small filesize for web applications because of the way it compresses large areas of of a single hue together and creates less artifacts around contrasting areas than a high compression jpeg would (which of course doesn't support "true transparency"). The downside being that the 8bit gif format only support 256 colours and as such is not suitable for photographic images and is better suited to logos and graphic images.
Enter the .png format. Png's are now commonly supported by most modern web browsers and web-design software the trade off being that to preserve transparency you need to use the 24bit version .png format which means much larger filesizes than the 8bit .gif but you will be able to take advantage of the much larger colour palette and the 8bit "alpha channel" (transparency).
Its funny Jim, but I haven't been through "photoshop training", yet I would never flatten a file with "live transparency" to export to another application unless I absolutely needed to. Your suggestion of saving as a .tiff using the selection as transparency only creates a "faux transparency" on the tiff image by creating what is in essence only a clipping path, this area would then all have a 0% opacity in your new application and the edges of your opaque image would suffer from aliasing. It should also be noted that most applications that will open a .tiff file do not support adobe's "clipping path add-on" and I would suggest that you personally (Jim) are only saving across to In-Design, as such I would suggest that you would be better saving to a native Adobe format (psd/eps/pdf1.6) which would preserve "live transparency" between your applications.
CP
Motorsport Marketing Solutions
Unauthorized at Absolutely Anything
Maybe time for further "photoshop training"
Rich was quite obviously talking about about web-transparency and the only two file formats which support this are the .gif and .png (24bit) formats. The .gif is commonly used because of its relatively small filesize for web applications because of the way it compresses large areas of of a single hue together and creates less artifacts around contrasting areas than a high compression jpeg would (which of course doesn't support "true transparency"). The downside being that the 8bit gif format only support 256 colours and as such is not suitable for photographic images and is better suited to logos and graphic images.
Enter the .png format. Png's are now commonly supported by most modern web browsers and web-design software the trade off being that to preserve transparency you need to use the 24bit version .png format which means much larger filesizes than the 8bit .gif but you will be able to take advantage of the much larger colour palette and the 8bit "alpha channel" (transparency).
Its funny Jim, but I haven't been through "photoshop training", yet I would never flatten a file with "live transparency" to export to another application unless I absolutely needed to. Your suggestion of saving as a .tiff using the selection as transparency only creates a "faux transparency" on the tiff image by creating what is in essence only a clipping path, this area would then all have a 0% opacity in your new application and the edges of your opaque image would suffer from aliasing. It should also be noted that most applications that will open a .tiff file do not support adobe's "clipping path add-on" and I would suggest that you personally (Jim) are only saving across to In-Design, as such I would suggest that you would be better saving to a native Adobe format (psd/eps/pdf1.6) which would preserve "live transparency" between your applications.
CP
Motorsport Marketing Solutions
Unauthorized at Absolutely Anything
The Counterfeiter
Nitro Member
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