PNG Probs

Hi peoples,

I know this isnt strictly MMF related, but I have witnesed similar probs in MMF before and though one of you might know....

I have a social networking site with a Virtual gifts area. I am trying to make my own gifts that are themed to the site. Now, I have always been a grapics guru, but for some reason I appear to be as thick as frozen custard at the mo...

I can make the graphics 80x80 pixels (and nice they are too in photoshop). I make 2 layers, delete the background layer and then cut the colours I want to be transparent from the remaining layer. This gives me my graphic surounded by the grey and white squares of transparency. I save them as png24 because .gif is just awfull. I save with transparency selected. Then when I load them into the site a background has appeared from nowhere???

Am I going mad or is age catching up with me?

Any help would partialy rebuild my sanity,

Thanks,

Nathan.

I think the most likely thing is that you saved the images with a single transparent color instead of using the existing alpha channel.

Try re-opening the saved images in Photoshop (or a different program) to test if they are actually being saved with the alpha channel.
Upload the files (.psd / .png) here if you want, and I'll take a look.

EDIT: It seems I am wrong about what I posted below. If you import it as a saved png image, it will import alpha channel! (this makes me very happy!)

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MMF does not import the alpha channel with the png (AFAIK... am I wrong?) to do that, you are left with one option (and it's not perfect, and I only know how to do this in PS CS5) open your png that has transparency, create a new layer.

Place that layer under the main image and fill it black. (to serve as a solid black 0, 0, 0 background for mmf to see as transparent)

Select the top layer (your image layer) now, using the marquee tool, right click the area of the png that is fully transparent. (it will be black because of the layer below of course) click "load selection" a new window will pop up. make sure one of the drop downs says layer transparency. Click ok.

Now, go to the channels tab (right beside the layers tab) on the bottom of the channels windows, click the grey square with the solid white circle "create new channel." BOOM! That should create an alpha channel for MMF.

To use it correctly, do this:

De select the eye beside your new alpha channel (hiding it.) Go back to the layers tab and flatten the image (or press control-E) select all and copy. (this should copy the image with a black background) Import this into MMF.

Now go back to photoshop, and go to the channels tab again. Turn on the alpha channel and deselect the others (making sure the alpha channel is high lighted) copy this black and white image and import as the alpha channel in MMF. DONE.

One issue I've found: Since MMF uses a single color for transparency, the alpha channel does create a gradual fade, but it does so with a bit of darkness because of the black. To get around this, I suppose you could use the image import function instead of copy, paste. That way you could choose your transparent color to be what ever your website background is, and use that instead of black in Photoshop.

What may be happening is that the image information (the background) is still saved in the image, and alpha transparency information is overlaid on top of that. I know I see some of this in the MMF image editor preview window when I go to import PNG's sometimes. (image imports just fine, only visable in preview) I have no idea what to do about it, but cutting and pasting into a new png in photoshop might fix it.