Re: How to Make Transparent Gifs

Woody:

To make one color of a GIF transparent in Canvas is usually quite simple. It
is done as follows:

Select the image on your page you wish to make into a GIF and then go to
File > Save As:

Be sure to click the check box in the lower left of the pop-up "Save As"
screen for "Selection Only" (So you don't save the whole page as a big giant
GIF)

In the drop down box of Type of Files--select GIF.

Ignore the warning that saving in anything but Canvas format will result in
poor quality. (That was included just to massage the ego of some Canvas
programmer.)

Type in the name of the image. NOTE: Like many other programs, Canvas will
try to place an upper case extension, (GIF) when you save the file. If you
are on an Unix server and need lower case, just type in the whole thing, ie:
imagename.gif and Canvas will honor your wishes.

You will get a pop up screen asking about the number of colors to allow in
the image. This is where you can sometimes reduce the file size at the
expense of reduced quality.

But regardless of what you choose here--(I usually create my GIF's with just
a few colors and no dithering, so I can just tell this screen OK)--just make
your choice and click OK.

The next screen that comes up shows you a thumbnail of the image and gives
you a little square color patch of each color in your image. Notice the drop
down list on the right. Clicking on this allows you to choose to select one
of the colors to be transparent. Make your choice and click OK

That's all there is to it. The transparent part works fine on the web and
even in Canvas itself. However, the transparent part often will not hold up
if the whole works is then saved as a PDF. I guess Postscript just never
learned how to handle transparent GIF's.

BTW--You can also pull up your page or just the image, in FrontPage--then
right-click the GIF image and choose Properties. Select the color to be
transparent and re-save the page or image using FrontPage. The color you
selected will now be transparent.

Best wishes
Ted Temer
Temercraft Designs Redding, CA
temer(at)c-zone.net
www.temercraft.com/novels/
www.andersonparkflyers.org
www.newsredding.com/


> I have the same problem using Canvas...  soooo aggrivating..
>
> Woody
>
>
>
> > Hello All,
> >     I have a problem I am trying to make a gif appear transparent on a
> > colored background & I can't seem to do. Can someone help me. I am using
> > Adobe Photo Shop LE. Thanks alot!!!
> >
> > With Warm Regards,
> > Wendy
> >
>
>

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