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When I add a Layer Mask to an image (PS 7.01), the Channels Palette shows what appears to be an alpha channel added to the image.
Yet if I save the image as TIF, then open the image in Shake or Gimp, the image opens as RGB, not RGBA. No alpha channel or alpha transparency is seen by the other apps.
If however, I take the same image in Photoshop, go to the Channels Palette, duplicate the Layer Mask-created "alpha" channel, naming it "alpha" – so that I now show TWO "alpha" channels in the Channels Palette, I can then open it in Shake or Gimp and it will appear as an RGBA image with alpha transparency.
So – was the original extra channel generated in my image by adding a Layer Mask an alpha channel, or not? And if it wasn’t an alpha channel, what was it? (Also, if it wasn’t an alpha channel, why when I duplicated the thing did I then have an alpha?)
So far as I can tell, the Layer Mask tool only produces transparency WITHIN Photoshop. Are there any other apps that recognize images with a Layer Mask applied as having alpha transparency or even an alpha channel?
This has been a frustrating day…
Yet if I save the image as TIF, then open the image in Shake or Gimp, the image opens as RGB, not RGBA. No alpha channel or alpha transparency is seen by the other apps.
If however, I take the same image in Photoshop, go to the Channels Palette, duplicate the Layer Mask-created "alpha" channel, naming it "alpha" – so that I now show TWO "alpha" channels in the Channels Palette, I can then open it in Shake or Gimp and it will appear as an RGBA image with alpha transparency.
So – was the original extra channel generated in my image by adding a Layer Mask an alpha channel, or not? And if it wasn’t an alpha channel, what was it? (Also, if it wasn’t an alpha channel, why when I duplicated the thing did I then have an alpha?)
So far as I can tell, the Layer Mask tool only produces transparency WITHIN Photoshop. Are there any other apps that recognize images with a Layer Mask applied as having alpha transparency or even an alpha channel?
This has been a frustrating day…
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