Clipart -- how to replace white bg w/transparent?

by **Jenn** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:39 am

I found some clipart on-line that I'd like to use in one of my shows. It has a white background and my slide has a dark blue background. Is it possible to use a photo editing program (I have Paint Shop Pro and Picture It!) to change the white background to a transparency so I can use it on any color background?

Thanks,
Jen

by **nannybear** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:43 am

Wish I could help but I have Photoshop and PhotoImpact. will try to google you an explanation. Cheers Jan

by **nannybear** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:45 am

Ok try this page...

http://www.ehow.com/how_9034_create-tra ... t-gif.html

:lol:

Cheers Jan

by **Jenn** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:02 am

Thanks Jan! (Is there ANYTHING we can't find in the 'net?)

I tried it and it didn't work for this particular image. The image is red heart balloons inside a white square, all with a transparent background. I can't seem to separate the balloons from the white square, and I can't think of any way to do that except to use the edging tool and cut the balloons to paste them on a transparency.

Am I on the right track?

Thanks again,
Jen

by **nannybear** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:13 am

I can google pretty much anything! If you send it to me I will do it for you :lol:

Cheers Jan

by **DanDan** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:34 am

Hey Jen,
I use Paint Shop Pro (9), and that is what I use to save clip art/pics as a .png or gif. One of your tool bars (you may not have it visable) but there is one, is called "Web". If you don't see, go to View > Toll bars click on "Web". there are three options called opimizers for three file types JPG, GIF, PNG. First open the pic you want to work with, and click on PNG on the tool bar. You may have to play a bit to get what you want. You can also click on the wizard to help. Using the wizard, one of the options is what color is your background, click on the pic to indicate your color (eyedroper tool appears), also you will find a selection to tell the wizard what color you what transparent. Until you actually use it as you intend, the backgound (just looking at the pic after saving) will throw you, sometimes it's black, sometimes white. Ignore that for now. It's when you use it as a overlay tat the transparent becomes,.....appearant!! Ha,Ha, I made a funny.
Post back if you hit a snag, I'll be on and off (of here) today.
Good luck!

_Dan

by **nannybear** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:38 am

no pun intended right Dan! You crack me up.... :lol:

ttys Jan

by **DanDan** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:52 pm

Hey Jen,
If you are still working on that, I just reminded myself of another post I made (only yesterday, but,....ok' I had already forgotten about it) -(Ha!), That covers kinda the same topic. It also has an embeded link to great info on transparancy by Lin Evans and a couple of others. Hopeful that link will post here to when I copy and Paste. It was just easier for me to find that way. Ok', I don't know how to do the quote thingy, but it's the next paragraph.

Well, glad you liked that. The window, well let's see. It was largely trial and error, and still wasn't exactly what I was going for. To me it looks a little icy, more so than "steamy". I saved several versions, but decided on that one.
For a photo editor I use Paint Shop 9. I found a pretty good pic, with a Google search, looking for "wet glass" I think. I found the pic opened it in my editor, applied a 3d bevel to try to get a thickened 3d sort of edge at the top. Then playing with the png optimizer, I kept selecting different color pixels to make the transparent portion. This would be one of those you don't realize how many color variations there are even though the original pic appeared to be greyish tones. But in those grey tones, there were grey, blue, green, purple hues. When I hit on a couple of varations that I liked I saved as a .png file type. (In the show the window is zoomed a bit so as far as edges go you only see the top edge.) I am sure someone with more expertise with their editor could have done this in a more streamlined fashion, and maybe with better results. If you have ever made frames or borders in an editor you may be more familiar with using a transparent background and layering it with your frame and then cutting out and saving as a .png. This is a good thread with more ideas on how to achieve levels of transparency.
http://itsmygallery.com/ProShow/viewtop ... ght=#14398 , Lin Evans really gave some good pointers here.
I too like to play with transparency, can't you tell, but there are other ways to do it depending on your experience level and how you like to work. I hope I gave you enough info to get you started.

Anyway it was the link to Lin's procedure I was trying to get to you,........I know everyone out there is laughing their heads off. Please someone pm me about how to do the quote thing (you know in the boxed bracket) :lol:

Jan: Ya know, you were absolutely no help on this one! :lol:

Ya I am still laughing myself. By the way I keep meaning to ask you what is "ttys"? I know what "ttfn" is, and just this week "BOFH", do you know that one, I had to look it up in wikipedia.

_Dan

by **nannybear** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:00 pm

talk to you soon....IMHO= in my honest opinion JM2S or JMTC= just my two cents but you have me on BOFH :roll:

I can't print what I got when I googled it.......Jan
Hey as far as help I said I would create it

by **SSteve** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:34 pm

I use a free site called Gifworks it is easy.It will only take Gif files so a png or one of those I take into Irfanview and change it to a gif.If you decde to use gifworks let me know and I can walk you through the process.
Steve
http://www.gifworks.com/cgi-bin/gifwork ... nsfer_open

by **Jenn** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:11 pm

Wow! I've been "away" all day working on my show with the firewall and security turned off, and just turned them back on to check in. Thanks Dan and Steve for your suggestions... I will try them. It can't be too hard, right? Ha!

Jen

by **DanDan** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:08 am

Good Night Irene!,...ur.eh,....Jan!
How could I have overlooked that. I am so sorry! I think the arteries are hardening faster than I realized. :lol:

Yes, I finnally get the ttys, after all this time!

" HYRB", Hug you right back!
_Dan

by **TweedleDee** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:15 am

In Photoshop, I would use the Magic Wand to select the white square, then do a "Select Inverse", then ctrl-J to create a layer of the balloons, then save this layer as a .gif or .png. There should be a similar proceedure in PSP or Elements. :?:

by **SSteve** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:18 am

Jenn wrote:Wow! I've been "away" all day working on my show with the firewall and security turned off, and just turned them back on to check in. Thanks Dan and Steve for your suggestions... I will try them. It can't be too hard, right? Ha!

Jen

Jen
another thing I use Irfanview on those gifs if you have an animated one you wanted to use in your show it will als retract all the frames from the animated Gif.Just thought I would drop that in.
Steve

by **Jenn** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:39 pm

Thanks Steve for the additional suggestion. I've looked into Irfanview in the past... maybe it's time to take another look.

TweedleDee, that's right... I could also use the edging tool in my editor..... I was looking for something less time-consuming, like "Remove white background and replace with transparency", all in one click, LOL. :wink:

Thanks everyone. One of the things I love about these forums is the wealth of knowledge and experience about things I still have yet to learn, and the nice folks willing to share and help.

Jen

Clipart -- how to replace white bg w/transparent?

Clipart -- how to replace white bg w/transparent?

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adding transparency

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