Photoshop elements 5.0 and transparency

F
Posted By
Fguy
Oct 7, 2009
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456
Replies
3
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Closed
Greetings.

I have a series of files that I captured from websites and saved in png format. Chess pieces actually. They are relatively simple shapes that are either white with a black background or black with a white background.

I wish to make the backgrounds transparent, I suppose by setting an alpha component to zero. This would enable me to drag the pieces around on the screen in my computer chess program I am writing, without obscuring what lies underneath the background of each piece.

Can I do this with photoshop elements 5.0? I don’t need a specific how to, though it would be nice. If someone could just point me in the right direction, I would be most grateful.

Thanks.

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MR
Mike Russell
Oct 7, 2009
On Tue, 6 Oct 2009 18:34:03 -0700 (PDT), Fguy wrote:

Greetings.

I have a series of files that I captured from websites and saved in png format. Chess pieces actually. They are relatively simple shapes that are either white with a black background or black with a white background.

I wish to make the backgrounds transparent, I suppose by setting an alpha component to zero. This would enable me to drag the pieces around on the screen in my computer chess program I am writing, without obscuring what lies underneath the background of each piece.
Can I do this with photoshop elements 5.0? I don’t need a specific how to, though it would be nice. If someone could just point me in the right direction, I would be most grateful.

Elements is limited in the types of transparency information it can save. Cutting to the chase, here’s one way to accomplish what you need to do.

1) re-design your pieces so that the black pieces have a white border, and the white pieces have a black border. This is necessary so that the pieces will show up on both color of square.
2) save a white on black silhouette version of each *type* of piece. These are the masks. Note that you only need a mask for each of the 6 types of chess piece.
3) when your software displays the piece, supply the image and mask to the bitblt function.

Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com
F
Fguy
Oct 7, 2009
On Oct 6, 11:27 pm, Mike Russell
wrote:
On Tue, 6 Oct 2009 18:34:03 -0700 (PDT), Fguy wrote:
Greetings.

I have a series of files that I captured from websites and saved in png format. Chess pieces actually. They are relatively simple shapes that are either white with a black background or black with a white background.

I wish to make the backgrounds transparent, I suppose by setting an alpha component to zero. This would enable me to drag the pieces around on the screen in my computer chess program I am writing, without obscuring what lies underneath the background of each piece.

Can I do this with photoshop elements 5.0? I don’t need a specific how to, though it would be nice. If someone could just point me in the right direction, I would be most grateful.

Elements is limited in the types of transparency information it can save. Cutting to the chase, here’s one way to accomplish what you need to do.
1) re-design your pieces so that the black pieces have a white border, and the white pieces have a black border.  This is necessary so that the pieces will show up on both color of square.
2) save a white on black silhouette version of each *type* of piece.  These are the masks.  Note that you only need a mask for each of the 6 types of chess piece.
3) when your software displays the piece, supply the image and mask to the bitblt function.

Mike Russell -http://www.curvemeister.com

Thanks Mike, for the tips, I can tell you that adding borders for the pieces is not needed, because my square colors are are light gray and and a darker grey, and solid black and white shows up fine. I am working in java, and right now what I have done is created blank transparent BufferedImages from within java, then drawing black and white geometric shapes on to the transparent background. If you are interested to see what I have now, it’s all on my website, http://sites.google.com/site/fchess09/

Anyways, I’ll look into your suggestions as time permits and let you know how it turns out.

regards.
MR
Mike Russell
Oct 7, 2009
On Wed, 7 Oct 2009 12:15:38 -0700 (PDT), Fguy wrote:

On Oct 6, 11:27 pm, Mike Russell
wrote:
On Tue, 6 Oct 2009 18:34:03 -0700 (PDT), Fguy wrote:
Greetings.

I have a series of files that I captured from websites and saved in png format. Chess pieces actually. They are relatively simple shapes that are either white with a black background or black with a white background.

I wish to make the backgrounds transparent, I suppose by setting an alpha component to zero. This would enable me to drag the pieces around on the screen in my computer chess program I am writing, without obscuring what lies underneath the background of each piece.

Can I do this with photoshop elements 5.0? I don’t need a specific how to, though it would be nice. If someone could just point me in the right direction, I would be most grateful.

Elements is limited in the types of transparency information it can save. Cutting to the chase, here’s one way to accomplish what you need to do.
1) re-design your pieces so that the black pieces have a white border, and the white pieces have a black border.  This is necessary so that the pieces will show up on both color of square.
2) save a white on black silhouette version of each *type* of piece.  These are the masks.  Note that you only need a mask for each of the 6 types of chess piece.
3) when your software displays the piece, supply the image and mask to the bitblt function.

Mike Russell -http://www.curvemeister.com

Thanks Mike, for the tips, I can tell you that adding borders for the pieces is not needed, because my square colors are are light gray and and a darker grey, and solid black and white shows up fine. I am working in java, and right now what I have done is created blank transparent BufferedImages from within java, then drawing black and white geometric shapes on to the transparent background. If you are interested to see what I have now, it’s all on my website, http://sites.google.com/site/fchess09/

Anyways, I’ll look into your suggestions as time permits and let you know how it turns out.

regards.

Very attractive presentation.

Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com

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