Tutorial Five

Creating an Image with a Transparent Background

In this tutorial I hope to explain how to create an image without a coloured background, as in the image above. If you save an image as a jpeg within psp it automatically saves with a white background, even though on your workspace it looks transparent, regardless of whether you have merged visible or merged all layers. This is no good if you want your image to blend in with the background it is to be shown on.

There is a way of removing the background and then saving your image as a gif but I find that rather complicated. I much prefer to take a much easier route.

Open a new image about 400x400 with a transparent background:-

Now copy and paste a tube of your choice and it's copyright layer onto that image. For this tutorial you can use one of the tubes that came with your program if you wish. If you do this you should copyright it to Corel if displaying it on the web.You should now have three layers as in this shot:-

Now right click into any of the layers on the right of your workspace and click on Merge Visible:-

Now you have two ways of saving your image. Firstly you can just use the save as option, making sure that you choose png as the format you wish to save your image.

Now you have an image which has a transparent background and will just sit on a web site without a coloured background. This is what mine looks like:-

The other method is to use the Export as png method. To do this go to File, Export:-

A box will appear and you need to check the settings on the box that opens, and also on the Transparency tab:-

On the Colors tab which opens, I have used Palette-Based setting, as shown above. Play around with the settings to see what each does to your image. When you are happy, click on Transparency:-

Click Ok and then save your image as a png. again you should have an image with a transparent background.

 

The method above will work with non-animated images. If you are going to animate your image you will need to save it as a gif, but we will be learning about animation later in the course.

I hope you have found this tutorial useful. As always if you have any queries please contact me.

 

This Tutorial was written in May 2010 by Helen Peachey, and the concept of the tutorial is copyrighted.
Please feel free to LINK to the tutorial and/or print it out for your personal use,
but please do not copy it in any way to put online, pass out or re-write without permission.
The image you create using this tutorial is for you to do what you wish except for monetary gains or for merchandising.
© Peachies Designs and Tutorials. Any Resemblance to another tutorial is purely coincidental.