How to Change the Canvas

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 03:12:39 GMT, Dennis Hughes
scribbled:

I am working on an unusually shaped squadron emblem for an upcoming reunion. It came to me as a jpg on a rectangular canvas with a white background.

I converted it to psd and want to eliminate the entire surrounding white canvas. I was able to get the "transparent" checkerboard around the emblem, but want the image to be only the emblem itself, not a rectangular image.

When I save it back to jpg, there is still a rectangular white canvas around the emblem.

I’m using CS.

Can this be done?

<sigh>

On 15-Feb-2004, Dennis Hughes wrote:

I am working on an unusually shaped squadron emblem for an upcoming reunion. It came to me as a jpg on a rectangular canvas with a white background.

I converted it to psd and want to eliminate the entire surrounding white canvas. I was able to get the "transparent" checkerboard around the emblem, but want the image to be only the emblem itself, not a rectangular image.

When I save it back to jpg, there is still a rectangular white canvas around the emblem.

I’m using CS.

Can this be done?

You can’t save a raster image as anything but a rectangle. However, you can save it with a transparent background which has a similar effect. The problem is JPEG does not support transparency. GIF is the most reliable and portable format that supports transparency. If you’re only going to use it in Photoshop, save it as a PSD.

Your other choice is to convert it to a vector format (like AI.)

—
Tom Thackrey
www.creative-light.com
tom (at) creative (dash) light (dot) com
do NOT send email to (it’s reserved for spammers)

Dennis Hughes wrote in
news::

I am working on an unusually shaped squadron emblem for an upcoming reunion. It came to me as a jpg on a rectangular canvas with a white background.

I converted it to psd and want to eliminate the entire surrounding white canvas. I was able to get the "transparent" checkerboard around the emblem, but want the image to be only the emblem itself, not a rectangular image.

This is utterly impossible with current imaging technology, sorry. Images are rectangular, period. Images that do not appear to be so actually are and have either some form of transparency, a mask, or a clipping path applied.

When I save it back to jpg, there is still a rectangular white canvas around the emblem.

Correct. JPEG does not support transparency.

If you are saving a graphic for the web, you will need to save a copy as GIF to preserve the transparency in a format any web browser will understand. If it is going to print, you will need to apply a clipping path to knock out the transparent areas, or if you are using InDesign your PSD should actually work directly.

In any case, if you want to save in a different format, be sure you save a copy to experiment with. Keep your PSD for further updates or you may lose a lot.

<snip>

Thanks to Voivod Tom, & Eric for the good explanations. I work a PC and the person that needs the emblem is using a Mac and wasn’t able to import the gif I sent – into the jpg image he was working with.

I’ll try a tif and see if that will import into his jpg.

Regards,

Dennis
===============
Dennis Hughes wrote:

I am working on an unusually shaped squadron emblem for an upcoming reunion. It came to me as a jpg on a rectangular canvas with a white background.

I converted it to psd and want to eliminate the entire surrounding white canvas. I was able to get the "transparent" checkerboard around the emblem, but want the image to be only the emblem itself, not a rectangular image.

When I save it back to jpg, there is still a rectangular white canvas around the emblem.

I’m using CS.

Can this be done?

Thanks,

Dennis

If that doesn’t work (though it should) the png format
supports transparency as well….
"Dennis Hughes" wrote in message

Thanks to Voivod Tom, & Eric for the good explanations. I work a PC and

the

person that needs the emblem is using a Mac and wasn’t able to import the gif I sent – into the jpg image he was working with.

I’ll try a tif and see if that will import into his jpg.
Regards,

Dennis
===============
Dennis Hughes wrote:

I am working on an unusually shaped squadron emblem for an upcoming reunion. It came to me as a jpg on a rectangular canvas with a white background.

I converted it to psd and want to eliminate the entire surrounding white canvas. I was able to get the "transparent" checkerboard around the emblem, but want the image to be only the emblem itself, not a rectangular image.

When I save it back to jpg, there is still a rectangular white canvas around the emblem.

I’m using CS.

Can this be done?

Thanks,

Dennis

i use png for transparency. Not always reliable for web stuff…but find for printing

and as far as the mac user not being able to open your gif….i can not imagine any problem.

"JP Kabala" wrote in message

If that doesn’t work (though it should) the png format
supports transparency as well….
"Dennis Hughes" wrote in message

Thanks to Voivod Tom, & Eric for the good explanations. I work a PC and

the

person that needs the emblem is using a Mac and wasn’t able to import

the

gif I sent – into the jpg image he was working with.

I’ll try a tif and see if that will import into his jpg.
Regards,

Dennis
===============
Dennis Hughes wrote:

I am working on an unusually shaped squadron emblem for an upcoming reunion. It came to me as a jpg on a rectangular canvas with a white background.

I converted it to psd and want to eliminate the entire surrounding

white

canvas. I was able to get the "transparent" checkerboard around the emblem, but want the image to be only the emblem itself, not a rectangular image.

When I save it back to jpg, there is still a rectangular white canvas around the emblem.

I’m using CS.

Can this be done?

Thanks,

Dennis

Dennis Hughes wrote in
news::

Thanks to Voivod Tom, & Eric for the good explanations. I work a PC and the person that needs the emblem is using a Mac and wasn’t able to import the gif I sent – into the jpg image he was working with.

Hmm. Well, if you’re sending on your stuff for someone else to use, send the PSD instead of a (partly) lossy format like gif. He should be able to open it with no problem and copy your transparent layers in a snap.

I’ll try a tif and see if that will import into his jpg.

Should. Hopefully, he’s not using the JPEG as his original.

It may be that he’s trying to ‘export’ it on a floppy – in which case it may be the file format

Macintosh File Type of: GIFf

MS-DOS extension: ".GIF"

just a thought.

—
www.micromountain.com
"JP Kabala" wrote in message

If that doesn’t work (though it should) the png format
supports transparency as well….
"Dennis Hughes" wrote in message

Thanks to Voivod Tom, & Eric for the good explanations. I work a PC and

the

person that needs the emblem is using a Mac and wasn’t able to import

the

gif I sent – into the jpg image he was working with.

I’ll try a tif and see if that will import into his jpg.
Regards,

Dennis
===============
Dennis Hughes wrote:

I am working on an unusually shaped squadron emblem for an upcoming reunion. It came to me as a jpg on a rectangular canvas with a white background.

I converted it to psd and want to eliminate the entire surrounding

white

canvas. I was able to get the "transparent" checkerboard around the emblem, but want the image to be only the emblem itself, not a rectangular image.

When I save it back to jpg, there is still a rectangular white canvas around the emblem.

I’m using CS.

Can this be done?

Thanks,

Dennis

This saga ended with a success. I redid the gif, resent it and he was able to import it into the jpg image he was working.

He doesn’t have PS, so I assume the psd won’t open for him. Anyway, the gif worked.

Thanks to all for the quick and timely advice.

Dennis

Dennis Hughes wrote:

I am working on an unusually shaped squadron emblem for an upcoming reunion. It came to me as a jpg on a rectangular canvas with a white background.

I converted it to psd and want to eliminate the entire surrounding white canvas. I was able to get the "transparent" checkerboard around the emblem, but want the image to be only the emblem itself, not a rectangular image.

When I save it back to jpg, there is still a rectangular white canvas around the emblem.

I’m using CS.

Can this be done?

Thanks,

Dennis