transparent icons: how to change file type afterward

[Pikapika217]

hi! umm, here the problem; I wanted to use my new trasparent image on Livejournal; they only accept the file types of .jpg, .bmp , .gif , & .png

how do I change it into one of these filetypes without having the image flatten, which renders my work useless?

[Rick Brewster]

I moved your original post in to General Discussion. No need to keep reposting it in the Tutorials forum.

[BuzzKill]

Anytime you have two or more layers, you will have to flatten the image in order to be able to save it as any kind of image file. Think of a layer as a sheet of tracing paper. On the tracing paper you can draw and edit whatever you want. Since you are able to see through the tracing paper you can put another sheet on top and now those two combined sheets (LAYERS) makes an image based on the what's on those layers.

No matter how many layers you have, if you can still see any of the checkerboard the you have transparency. Same thing applies after you have flattened the image. If after you have flattened the image, you are still able to see the checkerboard then you have transparency. All that is left to is to save it to whatever format you wish. If you want and have transparency in the image then save it as a PNG image file since the .png format handles transparency.

If you open a .jpg in Paint.NET and edit it to where there is transparency then you need to SAVE AS it to a PNG file and not back to a jpeg.

[SearedIce]

If you want to preserve your layered work for future editing, simply save as a .pdn file. Then, save as a .png or whatever you want. If you want to change something later, change it in the .pdn, and then overwrite the .png (or whatever else you picked).

[BuzzKill]

I think that's what he or she has been doing. Sounds like he or she is just saving as a .pdn and then trying to use it over at Livejournal. That, or he/she has been editting jpegs or bitmaps and then saving them back as a jpeg or bitmap rather than a png.

[Pikapika217]

If you want to preserve your layered work for future editing, simply save as a .pdn file. Then, save as a .png or whatever you want. If you want to change something later, change it in the .pdn, and then overwrite the .png (or whatever else you picked).

I think that's what he or she has been doing. Sounds like he or she is just saving as a .pdn and then trying to use it over at Livejournal. That, or he/she has been editting jpegs or bitmaps and then saving them back as a jpeg or bitmap rather than a png.

thank you both for your help. i ended up just experimenting and figuring it out XPXDDD I'm saving all the new images in GIF form, and it's worked (note the icon ^^)

and by the way, it's 'He'; don't let that girly icon fool you XDD ^.~