Transparent Backgrounds
Paint Shop Pro is great for creating transparent
backgrounds for your Web graphics. Granted, in
my opinion, they were easier to create in
PSP 4, but they are not difficult in PSP 5 once
you know where everything is hidden.
The first problem you'll probably run into is locating
the "Set Palette Transparency" option. In PSP 4
it was conveniently located under the Options
button right on the Save As dialog box. You'll
go to save your image as a gif, press the Options button
and... and no transparency settings!
Undaunted you will go to File Format Preferences
in the File Menu only to find there are only three
formats listed, and gif isn't one of them. Now, all of
this could change as PSP 5 is still in BETA, but
until it does, just how do you set the transparent
color?
Searching all over, you will finally locate the option
under Colors on the
Menu Bar.
Defeated again...
the option is greyed out and will not let you set the
transparency. Panic is probably setting in about now, and
it's such a pity because you're so close.
To save a transparent background you must first reduce
the image's colors to 256. Go to Colors | Decrease
Color Depth on the menu bar. Choose 256 (8 bit).
This will open the Decrease Color Depth dialog box.
I've found the options I have selected in the Decrease
Color Depth dialog box work well for me, so you might
try duplicating those for now and play with different
settings at your leisure.
With your
Eye Dropper Tool
right click on the background color. This will transfer
the exact color to the active background color in the
Color Palette.
Select Colors | Set Palette Transparency... from
the Menu Bar. The Set Palette Transparency dialog
box will open, giving you three choices. Select the
"Set the transparency value to the current background
color" option and click ok.
To view your transparency
select Colors | View Palette Transparency from
the Menu Bar. The background of your image will now
appear as a white and gray checkerboard. You're now ready
to save your gif.
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Introduction to Paint Shop Pro 5 : Table of Contents
Resizing Images
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