Thanks for your reply, yes, I deleted the background and it worked on a couple of pictures I was working on. But when I closed paint.net and then went back to it, the same .png came up with the chequered background. At the moment I am experimenting to find my way round paint.net. I have had very little experience with this kind of programme and want to learn more about it. As for the purpose of saving, being new to this I find it time consuming trying to delete the background with the magic wand and eraser, because I am not that good at it, so I thought I would save my transperancies for further use. Thanks again for your response. I will keep experimenting.