|
You can use this tutorial with any version of PSP. Pictures shown are from PSP 9. You can download a trial version of PSP 9 at http://www.jasc.com Feel free to link back to my page and to share with your friends & groups! This is going to be a quick tutorial on how to save your graphics on transparent backgrounds so you can use them anywhere, anytime. The test picture will look like this:
*go directly to "save" instructions*
1. Open a new image, 250x250, transparent.
2. Click on "tubes" and choose "sports balls". At this point, you can also add in pictures of your own, artwork, or whatever you like. *note: I do NOT recommend using anything with a drop shadow. Drop shadows don't save as transparent very well. You can do it, but it might only work on one kind of background. As with everything, feel free to fiddle around and discover what looks best.
3. Add a new layer to your picture. Layers - New Rasta Layer. 4. Click your tube tool once to place a ball on the new layer. Use the undo key if you don't want that one, and move to the next ball. When you have something you like, leave it. Because it's on a layer by itself, you can then reposition the ball anywhere on your transparent background. I moved the soccer ball to the left side.
5. Click your text tool and add appropriate text to your picture. I added my son's name. Position the name appropriately. DO NOT add a drop shadow to the text. (See note above.)
6. Turn the background layer off, then merge the visible layers, and crop the picture.
7. Time to save. Click "File" - "Export" - "Gif Optimizer"
This will open the Gif saver. You will see two pictures of your graphic. The first is the original one, the second is how it will look once saved. The reality is, you probably won't see much of a difference here. The defaults are set so they'll look good in this window. The reality can be much different. The first "Transparency" tab should be set as follows:
The second "Partial Transparency" is the one that's going to really determine how seamless your graphic will be.
The "Blend Color" is the important feature of this tab. No picture is perfectly transparent. Around the picture or letters are going to be some pixels that won't register as transparent. These pixels will be colored "gray" in the case of this default. However, that color doesn't work on all backgrounds. See below.
You can see a little gray line around my graphic here. It's around the letters, and around the ball itself. Here's the same graphic, saved with black as the blend color.
So what I did was match the color of my orange background here. This gives the graphic a seamless look to it.
And you can't really see the pixels around the edge. Now, if I was going to use this graphic on white backgrounds, I would leave the default gray, or maybe change it to white. If I had a black or really dark background, I might use the black. It's all a matter of personal preference and what you're going to do with the graphic.
Need to ask a question? Have a suggestion or just get confused?
|
||||||||||||
