How do I create GIF tranparencies ?

PR
Posted By
Pete_Richards
May 21, 2005
Views
456
Replies
12
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Closed
I have a jpeg image of a baseball player on a white background. I want to make the white background transparent so I can overlay the baseball player on another image. How do I do this ?

Thx in advance.
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DM
Don_McCahill
May 21, 2005
Rename the background layer to Layer 0 (or any other name). Then erase out the bits you want transparent, so you can see a checkerboard to indicate that they are transparent. Then use save for web. There is a transparency button, a drop down for GIF, and something called Matte. In the latter set a color close to what the background color of the page will be (for anti aliasing purposes).

Don
L
LenHewitt
May 21, 2005
Pete,

Save for Web<GIF and drag the white from the palette to the transparent ICON at the bottom of the palette box.
C
Corey
May 21, 2005
Double click on the layer to "make a layer" which will allow for a transparent background. Use the Magic Wand Tool with "contiguous" checked to select the white background. SHFT-clicking will allow you to add portions that aren’t initially selected. Once you have a decent selection, press Delete. You may need to use the Eraser Tool to remove any unwanted remnants. Uncheck "contiguous" and use the magic Wand to selected the deleted area. Now go to Select > Feather (ALT+CTRL+D) and put in a value of less than one pixel, perhaps .5 or so. Now press Delete again which should get rid of any unsightly outline. Repeated pressings of Delete will keep "taking away" the unwanted portions. Depending on the size of the image (in pixels) a greater feathering value may be warranted.

Now, rather than saving as a GIF, drag this layer to the file you want to use for the new background and first save as a PSD with layers intact. Then Save for Web as a JPG. The quality will be much better than a GIF.

Peadge 🙂
PR
Pete_Richards
May 22, 2005
Thanks for the advice guys. I only undertstood about half of it but it put me on the right track. Cheers. 🙂
LM
Lynch_Mike
May 22, 2005
Select the white background using the magic wand.
Invert your selection.
Adjust your selection using the shift and alt keys till the player is selected. Copy.
Open new document: Be sure the new document has a transparent background! Paste.
This will be a new layer.
Trim any missed background with the eraser tool.
Save for web as a gif with transparency checked.
DS
Dave Smith
May 22, 2005

[This followup was posted to adobe.photoshop.windows and a copy was sent
to the cited author.]

In article ,
says…
Select the white background using the magic wand.
Invert your selection.
Adjust your selection using the shift and alt keys till the player is selected. Copy.
Open new document: Be sure the new document has a transparent background! Paste.
This will be a new layer.
Trim any missed background with the eraser tool.
Save for web as a gif with transparency checked.
I do it simuler. Only once I have what I don’t want transparent selected do a ctrl c (to copy) and then do a ctrl v (to paste) (it will create a new layer) then just go over to the layer menu and delete the background (origanal layer).
MB
Maria_Balke
May 27, 2005
I also have problems creating a transparent GIF. I have a logo in one color which contains a several small element and the problem is how to extract it in an easy way in order to paste it in a new document. The magic wand apparently does’nt work in only one color, and it would be too much work using the magnetic lasso. Anyone who can help me out?
D
duckster
May 27, 2005
Have you tried Help…Export Transparent Image? It worked for me.

HTH,

Kelly Kirsch
wrote in message
I also have problems creating a transparent GIF. I have a logo in one
color which contains a several small element and the problem is how to extract it in an easy way in order to paste it in a new document. The magic wand apparently does’nt work in only one color, and it would be too much work using the magnetic lasso. Anyone who can help me out?
L
LenHewitt
May 27, 2005
Save for Web<GIF and drag the colour you require to be transparent from the palette to the transparent ICON
at the bottom of the palette box.
LM
Lynch_Mike
May 27, 2005
The magic wand selects a contiguous area of one color, but has a slider to allow for various tollerances to include similar colors. You can set it so it only picks one color.

There is also a color picker tool to select one color (non contiguously) and it too has a tolerance slider to vary the anout of rleated color selected.

If you want everything but one color, select the color you dont want and cut.

IF that background is not transparent, then select>inverse, (will select everything except your single color) and copy and paste into a new document with the transparent background choice box selected.

You can also modify (fix) your selection with the alt(subtract from) and shift (add to) keys while using marquis and selection tools & wands.
-Mike
MB
Maria_Balke
Jun 2, 2005
Thanks a lot for your answers, they helped me!

Maria
P
Pipkin
Jun 2, 2005
Another way is to use SmartSaver Pro (as filter) with selected area to be transparent.

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