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Images that I changed to a transparent background are showing up black


akaStacy

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I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right forum. I couldn't find a 'general' forum....

I just learned how to make the background of my images transparent and am learning how to use layers. I am trying to save my pictures to picasa and photoshop so they are backed up and I can easily access them from any computer. I noticed that some of the pics are showing up all black. It's like the colors are inverted almost. I can kinda see the image in white, but mostly the whole thing is black. I noticed the same thing happened when I tried to open some of the images in paint.

I checked to see if they are all the same file type and they are not. Some are gif and some are png.

Also, some of my images won't open in windows photo gallery. They open in a blank web page. I originally go to my pictures and find them there, but when I click on them they open a page in IE instead of windows photo gallery so I can't crop them or anything.

Please let me know what I am doing wrong . I'm not real good with computers so please use terms that are easy to understand.

I am trying to work on a project where I print silhouettes or simple images on vintage sheet music to use as art. I need to be able to take them to a print shop to have this done and I can't do that if the images show up black or won't open in a regular program.

I am attaching a pic that saved black like I talked about and a pic of what it is supposed to look like.

Thanks bunches,

Stacy

post-93158-0-48954700-1352348472_thumb.jpost-93158-0-89868200-1352348520_thumb.p

Edited by akaStacy
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The dark image is a JPG. JPG images do not support transparency.

GIF images do support transparency, but only in a yes/no way. Each pixel is either transparent, or it is not. There are no graduated levels of transparency with this format.

PNGs support a full transparency channel (an image can have multiple different shades of transparency). So you should save your images as PNGs to preserve the transparent bits.

If you're saving your images as PDN then be aware that these are generally not supported by other applications as this is an internal format for Paint.NET. Great for preserving the layer structure and therefore for editing the image at a later stage.

<Moved to Paint.NET Discussion & Questions>

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I did know that jpg images don't support transparency. I read that on the tutorial on here where I learned how to make the background transparent, but it said I could save them as gif and png, but gif doesn't seem to be supported. The pictures in question are gif images. For some reason when I tried to save it from picasa it saved as a jpg image, but it is a gif. I also can't figure out how to save an image from photobucket so I can show you an example, but the images on there are also gif images. The images show up fine on my windows photo gallery, but not on other image editing/storing sites.

I guess I should only use png?? The only way I know to change them from gif to png is to open them in paint.net again, then resave them as png....

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I guess I should only use png??

Very strongly recommended if you want to have transparency in the image. If you need to compress them you can do so with the OptiPNG plugin.

The only way I know to change them from gif to png is to open them in paint.net again, then resave them as png....

That will do the job perfectly.

I should have welcomed you to the forum! It's good to have you here akaStacy.

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Thank you for welcoming me! I'm glad to be here. I'm enjoying learning new things I can do with Paint.net and am thankful to have these forums where I can come to ask questions!

I don't know if/why I would need to compress a file, but if I do where do I find OptiPNG?

Thanks bunches!

Stacy

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Let's not confuse the issue OddLlama. That link is to the OptiPNG home page which is more for Geeks.

What akaStacy needs is a link to the Paint.NET friendly version found here, or this rewrite of the original: OptiPNG updated

@akaStacy: The reason you would compress an image is so that it takes up less bandwidth (or 'space') when it is transmitted. Like when you download an image from the Internet or even view it on a website. Emailing is another good reason to apply compression. In transmission terms smaller = faster

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Thank you for understanding that I need things given to me in more simple terms!! So many times people will give me instructions on how to do something that just confuse me more than help. I did google OptiPNG, but didn't understand what I was looking at.

I actually just learned how to unzip a file (it was a 7zip) It was so easy I had to laugh at myself. So is compressing a file the same thing as 'zipping' it?

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@OddLlama. No offense to you. I do appreciate you trying to help. I just don't get it. I know a lot of people who are very good with computers sometimes have trouble explaining things in terms someone like me would understand. My brother is that way.

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Okay, no problem :) So go to that link EER gave you ( http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?showtopic=6305 ) and download the .zip file. Then open it and you will see a file called "OptiPngFileType." Keep that window up, and now find paint.NET by pressing the windows key and typing c:/program files/paint.net and pressing enter. You should see a ton of weird stuff, but just double-click on the FileTypes folder. It should be empty. Then go back to the OptiPNG plugin.zip file and click on the file called OptiPngFileType. Then press Ctrl+X (or right click it and select cut). Then go back to your FileTypes folder and press Ctrl+V (or right click and select paste). Now open paint.NET, and when you save an image, you should see an option called "OptiPNG" in the drop-down menu. Yay, it worked!

Here is my website - http://www.oddllama.cu.cc

Here is my gallery - http://oddalpaca.deviantart.com/gallery

Am I odd? - yes

Am I a llama? - yes

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