Please help with cropping / transparent background

[akuemerle0422]

Hello. I have created a bar graph in Excel that and I am using an image of a piece of wire in place of plain bars. I took a picture of the wire and used the magic wand tool in Paint.NET to make the background in the picture of the piece of wire transparent. When I view the graph in Excel it looks great; only the piece of wire is shown in place of the bars. The problem is that when I print the graph in color there is a light blue solid block around each piece of wire, so it appears that the "transparent" back ground of the wire picture is actually showing as light blue when printed. If I make the background of the graph white the blue blocks do not appear when I print the graph, but I need the background to be grey and when it is grey the blue blocks are visible.

 

I thought maybe I could fix this by using the magic wand tool and then deleting the transparent background that surrounds the piece of wire in the picture so the remaining file would be just the piece of wire with nothing around it. I tried using the magic wand tool and then cropping the image, it won't get rid of the background material. It is forcing the file to remain a rectangle which includes some background area instead of allowing the file to be in the shape of the piece of wire with no background at all (I hope this makes sense).

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[IRON67]

I think, your problem is NOT the transparent image but your printing device or printing software and their options.

 

Because you not show us your image we can't prove, wether it is properly edited by you or not.

[akuemerle0422]

Thanks for your reply. I'm attaching the file to this post.

EDIT: The file is too big apparently. It is a 1.4 MB .png file.

Edited April 7, 2016 by akuemerle0422

[IRON67]

1,4 MB is nothing. Upload the file to an imagehoster of your choice and provide us the link.

[akuemerle0422]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/otxx9wb1q1sq23c/NEWEST.png?dl=0

[IRON67]

Dropbox is not a good choice. First I thought, that your image has no transparency. Now I realized, that all is okay with it.

Edited April 7, 2016 by IRON67

[akuemerle0422]

Ok, so apparently the problem is my printer or printer driver/options. I did some research before and I thought this might be the case but I have been unable to find an adjustment in the printer or software to stop the blue blocks from appearing when I print the graph. I tried printing to a PDF file and then printing the PDF 'as image' and the shape of the blocks changed a little when I printed the PDF, but they were still there. That's why I came here to see if I could maybe do something else with the wire image to fix the problem. Thanks for trying.

[IRON67]

If you describe your actions, you really should tell the exact name of the program that you have used. If someone knows this program, he may help you better than by blind guessing.

[akuemerle0422]

I already stated previously that I used Paint.NET to edit the .png file and Excel to make the bar graph. If I printed a PDF file I would expect it to be pretty obvious that I was using Adobe Reader. Other than that the only other thing I mentioned was trying different printer settings, which I just did in the printer properties in Windows. What other actions did I describe that you want me to give you a program name for?

Do you have to try hard to be so arrogant and condescending, or does it just come naturally to you? I've been nothing but polite and up to this point you've managed to fit a smug comment into every one of your responses.

Edited April 7, 2016 by akuemerle0422

[IRON67]

I already stated previously that I used Paint.NET to edit the .png file and Excel to make the bar graph. If I printed a PDF file I would expect it to be pretty obvious that I was using Adobe Reader.

 

You call me arrogant but has it come to your mind that what is natural and obvious to you, does not have to apply for another? I'm not sitting at your computer. What you do not explicitly tell me, so I can only guess, and can then take a long time. I may, for example here work with PDF files, but I have not Adobe Reader. I can make spreadsheets but do not own Excel. And what specific printer settings you used, I do not know.

I only tried to help you and to gather the necessary information. If you ever look at it as arrogant to give you some good advice for the future, let helping others.

 

Have a nice day, my dear.

Edited April 7, 2016 by IRON67

[akuemerle0422]

Your comments were rude. Period. Maybe you can't see it because you are rude.

I work in the IT field and I spent years in tech support and I am painfully aware of the concept of having to help someone with computer issues remotely and needing them to give me good information so I could do so. My point was that I already gave you that information. There were no other program names to be disclosed, and I never expected anyone to blindly guess at anything. I appreciate the fact that you were attempting to help me, but your tone was definitely condescending.
 

[david.atwell]

Hello, aukemerle0422. Have you tried selecting the eyedropper tool  :PaintDotNet.Icons.ColorPickerTo  and using it on the offending blocks to see what their actual color is? If they are showing as pure white or pure transparent in Paint.NET, then I'm afraid the problem is probably with your printer or with Excel.

[akuemerle0422]

Thanks for the suggestion. When I use the eyedropper tool the actual color is light grey and white checkered, which I assume is transparent. If that is the case I'll shift my focus back to the printer/Excel.

Edited April 7, 2016 by akuemerle0422

[pdnnoob]

One more thing just to be absolutely certain: After you use the eyedropper, click on the "more" button in the color window and check the number by the Transparency/Alpha slider.

If the number isn't zero, it's not fully transparent.