Transparency Lost

[Mike Jay]

Newbie with this sort of problem again.

I have a pic that I want to superimpose on a target.

The pic is a png obtained on the web, described as having a transparent background. The target is a jpg obtained on the web. I resaved the target as a png, if that matters....

I open the target in paint.net.

I open the pic in another paint.net window.  It shows a checkerboard background.

I select all and copy it.

I paste it in the target windows, on a new layer.  It shows up with an apparently opaque checkerboard background.

What do I need to do to have the 'transparent' background be transparent, so I can see the target image except where the non-background image of the pic covers it, as I want?

[HyReZ]

Even though an image on the web may be describe as being transparent and downloads as a PNG, does not mean that checkboard backgeound is transparent.

Many web sites that offer free transparent PNG files only offer true 32bit PNG files if you download them and not copy and paste them.

To make sure that the checkboarding is transparent or not; open the image in Windows Paint. If you see checkerboarding when using Windows Paint, the background is truly checkerboarded with a pattern and is not transparent, or its background would appear white.

Also if the checkerboard is not transparent it will show up as checkerboarded in the image thumbnail.

 

You can probably eliminate the checkerboard pattern using the Magic Wand Tool at a tolerence of 41%.

Edited July 8, 2019 by HyReZ
inserting additional information

[IHaveNoName]

I'm with HyReZ on this. Most of the PNGs I've found/used which  actually had transparent backgrounds do not display in a browser or using the default Windows Picture Viewer (and even some other graphics programs) with a checkerboard  background. It displays as white or the default base background colour for the image viewer until you open it in PDN in a new transparent layer, of course.

 

Ergo that PNG's checkerboard background is, as HyReZ said, actually not transparent. That is the problem.

[Mike Jay]

11 hours ago, HyReZ said:

Even though an image on the web may be describe as being transparent and downloads as a PNG, does not mean that checkboard backgeound is transparent.

Many web sites that offer free transparent PNG files only offer true 32bit PNG files if you download them and not copy and paste them.

To make sure that the checkboarding is transparent or not; open the image in Windows Paint. If you see checkerboarding when using Windows Paint, the background is truly checkerboarded with a pattern and is not transparent, or its background would appear white.

Also if the checkerboard is not transparent it will show up as checkerboarded in the image thumbnail.

 

You can probably eliminate the checkerboard pattern using the Magic Wand Tool at a tolerence of 41%.

This, and I suspected something like. Thanks for suggesting simple test. I did download the file, but apparently this free file did not download as 32 bit w/transparent bg.

 

Off to play with the magic wand....

[IHaveNoName]

Good luck with that.

 

This topic inspired me to try something similar to that described with an image I liked but the graduated background used by the original creator had been done badly (JPG artifacts, banding). I thought it would be easy to cut out the main element, a beer bottle and simply replace the background. More difficult than I expected as the bottle, being glass, was partially transparent. I ended up recreating the whole thing using a found image of a similar beer bottle, actually a better picture quality photo, but with a transparent background. 

 

Made things much easier.

 

Consequently I would suggest that if you Google and can find the image you need with a genuinely transparent background you'll likely save yourself a lot of time and trouble you'll otherwise have playing around with the Magic Wand. You won't learn as much though.

Edited July 9, 2019 by IHaveNoName