Designs By Mark - Photoshop Tips - Transparent GIFs
Transparent
GIFs
For Photoshop 4.0 or 5.0
Go to File>New and
make a new image, 100x100 Pixels or a size that works for you. Make sure
to check where it says "Transparent Background", the click
OK.Use the type tool and make a
letter or any other image you need to be transparent from the
background.
Select>All.
Now copy: Edit>Copy. Close the image by pressing Ctrl.-W
(Mac: Command-W).
Make a
new image by holding down Ctrl.-N (Mac: Command-N). When the New Image dialog appears click OK. ( Note:
For older Photoshop versions you may need to add a few more pixels to the Width and Height
of the image to prevent the graphic from being cut off. You will need to do this before
you click OK, for versions 4 and 5 you should be ok.Now Edit>Paste.
Ok now we have easily cropped away any vertical or horizontal space with in the letter it
self.
Go to File>Export>GIF98a
Export. You will see the Export Dialog. The pallet will default to Exact, well
this can look really jagged on the edges of our transparent image, press preview and
you’ll see what I mean. So now lets increase the color by choosing
"Adaptive". We now have control on how many colors we want in the image. For my
letter I choose 16 from the Colors pop down menu.
Now where it says
"Transparency Index Color" ( which is default to gray ), Click on this and
choose the color that matches your web page background the closest and click OK. Now click
OK in the GIF Export Options. Now the Saving Dialog should appear. Name the image and save
it to your hardrive.
Now just go back to your
web page program and load the image on your page.