Re: Transparent GIFs

This can sometimes occur when reducing colors to the 256 gif maximum.  If an
image is created with 16 million colors, then reduced, the background is no
longer solid (particularly if antialiasing was used, or a non-browser safe
color was used for the background, or *ANY* shade of red was used ;)

Then transparency set, and since the background now has more than one color
in it, the color that is not transparent shows through.  I've found that
reducing to 256, then flood filling the background to make it solid, *then*
setting the transparency, gives a nice smooth result.

Antialiasing, drop shadows, special filters, and all that jazz tend to
contribute to messy transparency.  Ideally, vector graphics created in a
limited palette seem to make the best transparent gifs.  Plan ahead with
your background canvas, using as close a color as possible to your page
background to prevent the dreaded halo effect.

As always, your mileage may vary, as they say.

Karin



> At 09:08 AM 9/28/00 -0700, Ben Ocean wrote:
> >Hi;
> >I use PhotoShop 5.0 and will soon upgrade. I'm disappointed in the poor
> >quality of transparent gifs I create with this program. They end up
grainy
> >and often have speckles around the edges. I have seen other people's
> >transparent gifs and they look just fine. Can someone tell me what I'm
> >doing wrong, or recommend a plug-in utility?
> >TIA,
> >BenO
>
> Ben & Peggi Rodgers
> Pacific Grove, CA  (near Monterey)
> woodduck(at)mbay.net or
> rodgers(at)tide-pool.com
> http://www.tide-pool.com
> http://www.mbay.net/~woodduck
>
>

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