Douglas,
Few image formats support transparency. Two that do are GIF and PNG, but GIF only supports 256 colours.
It sounds as though PNG is what you require.
If you are preparing this artwork for printing, there are exactly two solutions: Using InDesign, you can place a layered PSD file with transparency. Using QuarkXPress or PageMaker, you must add a clipping path to your logo and save it in EPS format.
Thanks. We’re trying to place the logo on the main screen of an application we’re developing. It appears that we are limited to jpeg,, bmp, emf, ico, and wmf formats.
GIF is fine. The logo is 1 solid color. Can you tell me how to make the background transaparent?
Douglas,
Delete the background and use Save for Web>GIF and check the transparency box.
You can also drag any colour(s) to the transparency icon in the GIF colour palette in S4W to make that colour transparent.
Thanks, Len. I’m sorry – I screwed up. Our app can’t use GIF – only bmp, jpeg, emf, ico and wmf.
Thanks anyway.
Douglas,
I know much less than these other guys but you might want to try this option which has worked for me:
Bring your JPEG image into Photoshop (I’m assuming 7 here). Put a clipping path on it by using the Lasso Tool or however you normally do it. After you have the clipping image, if it does not already have a transparent background open a new document with a Transparent background and drag your logo (using the Move Tool) onto the document. Then go up to the "Help" on the Menu bar and go down to Export Transparent Image. Follow the instructions from here. Hope this helps.
Gordon
Gordon,
That will create a clipped EPS or transparent GIF depending upon whether the ‘for print’ or ‘for web’ options are chosen.
Thanks Len. I continually ran into the problem of an image giving me a white bounding box when it was brought in to another program and going through the "Export Transparent Image" process eliminated the white bounding box, leaving just the pure image. I was not real sure that this was what Douglas was asking about but I thought I would throw it out. Take care.
This process through the help menu doesn’t effect the quality of the image will it? I’ve know images to be distorted because of programs like Quark, but I tried this & brought it into Illustrator & it didn’t look too great. Just a question…
Our app can’t use GIF – only bmp, jpeg, emf, ico and wmf
Th eonly one of these that supports transparency is ICO. I don’t think PS can work with that.
Can you not make that background of the image the same colour as the surrounding area?
