i need transparent background for already made images

Hi hesaigo999ca,

Are you saving the image as a .JPG?  If so, transparency won't work.  Try saving as a .GIF or .PNG instead.

Also make sure the transparency checkbox is checked when you're saving the .GIF

:)

Lots of problems here. If u want to retain your transparent backgrounds u need to save to a format that supports them. Saving the image as a photoshop PSD image will retain your layers and transparency and all else. But this is only good to store your images as u work on them. When u save your images for the web, u need to choose an appropriate file type. The best file types that support alpha channels(transparency) for the web are gif and png. Except that gif only supports very simple transparency, a pixel is either completely transparent or completely opaque. PNG however, supports the full 8bit range of transparency ie. pixels can be  partially transparent, or fully transparent. Sounds good? But theres a snag, ie doesnt support PNGs with transparency.

Fortunately there is a work around. IE and most every other browser do support Flash objects/movies with transparent backgrounds, so simply u need to wrap your images in a macromedia Flash movie, a swf file. Of course this all depends on the complexity of your transparent backgrounds. If they are very simple, with very little transparency, just use a gif file.

I have personally used the Flash approach on my webpage. If u would like u can send me your images and I will put them in a flash movie with transparent backgrounds, along with some sample html.

www.digital-affinity.net
freeman118@digital-affinity.net - this email is only available for u to send me those images, no other correspondence.

Read more about flash movies with transparent backgrounds here: http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_14201

Not that this is of help here.. but maybe very soon. IE v7.0 will support Transparent PNG... ;)

Hi,

One additional tip . . . make sure you delete the background layer. You could be doing everything right, but if the background layer is still there, most files will not be transparent.

Chuck

There is a way to make PNG transparency work in IE: http://webfx.eae.net/dhtml/pngbehavior/pngbehavior.html
Requires a little effort, but worth it.

Same info from MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/filter/reference/filters/AlphaImageLoader.asp

Thanks all...seeing as I am with the best of the best based on what I have seen with the repsonses....
I will assign the points for what is already there....I will investigate the possibility of using flash...although does that not make it heavy for the web??? Reason being I want all pictures to have transparent backgrounds so that when I change the css background for the bdoy or tables...they all change without touching the pics...

On a side note, to those of you proficient in flash...
does anyone know how to create an object in flash to be able to use the vectorizing functionality.
I had a friend that moved away that was excellent with Flash and showed me
quickly that you could insert an image to be saved as an object.
Then with that you had a totally sizable picture without loosing the pictures integrety or loosing any image quality when you increased or decreased the size....I have a manual, but has 1 page dedicated to turning pictures into objects ...
would anyone know of better links/ tutorials of how to do this...

I have increase the amount of points so that answering the next question will not be a total loss of your time...

Using Flash to present transparent images shouldn't cause any significant extra overhead, at least no more than the original image itself would. If anyhting, the ability to apply jpeg compression(which u can do in Flash) to transparent images would improve performance. However if u are going to do a lot of transparency, I would think about using the png approach, simply for ease of use.

does anyone know how to create an object in flash to be able to use the vectorizing functionality.
I had a friend that moved away that was excellent with Flash and showed me
quickly that you could insert an image to be saved as an object.
Then with that you had a totally sizable picture without loosing the pictures integrety or loosing any image quality when you increased or decreased the size....I have a manual, but has 1 page dedicated to turning pictures into objects ...
would anyone know of better links/ tutorials of how to do this...

If you want to 'vectorize' a bitmap in Flash, its relatively easy, but something u should realize, you will always lose quality in complex images. When there are lots of gradients and shades of colours, the tracing(vectorizing) will replace these with vector shapes to closely match the original as best they can.

Anyway heres how to do it in Flash: Go File->Import and import your bitmap image into Flash, then select the image and go Modify->Bitmap->Trace Bitmap, choose your settings for shape and colour accuracy. There u go, a vector interpretation of your image.

But you will likely be disappointed, it will be resizeable, but it wont look much like the original image(if it is anything more than a flat colour shape). Also if u try set your trace resolution to high, the vectors will actually trace out the pixels, so you'll be stuck with the same pixelated resizing prob u had with the bitmap. Anyway, experiment with it and the settings maybe it will solve your prob.

I agree with Freeman. I would avoid the trace bitmap feature unless this is the look you are going after. The other option is to from Photoshop save as a .PNG file (INTERLACE NONE) with the transparent background and import into flash. This will hold the origonal quality and you can change to any background color you like in Flash.

Actually...freeman118, I will get those points awarded off next time i log on, but I thought that when you turned the image into an object "as is"...then placed it as part of your
"movie", this meant that inside the movie, you could do a zoom in and zoom out, without loosing any quality what so ever of the image...am I just mistaken or is this something different then using the vectorizing feature of flash?