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Saving bmps with transparency


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Anyone know of a good program which can save bmps with transparency? I know GIF Movie Gear is great at it, but my trial has ended. I'm really looking for something freeware...if it's out there?

I'm trying to change my IE toolbar, I can get the bmps to show on the toolbar, but they've lost their transparency =[

[EDIT]Never mind.....I got it! :p[/EDIT]

ie_toolbar.jpg

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I've never tried it, but can Irfanview do it?

.bmp's have no transparency, unless the program uses a designated rgb value as 'transparent'.

.gif & .png support transparency.

Yes they can, you can have 32 bit bitmaps which holds transparency and they are viewable to programs that can read it.
4. What are Alpha Channels?

An alpha channel defines which areas of an exported bitmap are transparent and which areas are opaque. FreeHand can include an alpha channel in these export formats:

xRes LRG (32-bit) TIFF (32-bit) TGA (32-bit) PNG (32-bit) BMP (32-bit)

By default FreeHand creates an alpha channel outline of each object in your illustration. This alpha channel is invisible to the user. All areas covered by a FreeHand object will be opaque. All areas outside of the FreeHand object will be transparent. If you select "Include Alpha Channel" in the Setup of the bitmap export the alpha channel information is included in the exported file. You can then open this file in xRes or Photoshop and see the default alpha channel outline.

You can use this alpha channel information to help you edit the exported bitmap in xRes or Photoshop. See the documentation for your bitmap editor for more information on working with alpha channel images in that program.

FreeHand can only export alpha channel information. It cannot see alpha channel information in an imported file.

Bitmaps can contain an 8bit alpha mask just like png's and tiffs.

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twist, thanks for your mail, and your right. For the example you showed me. The magic pink is cool for simple icons which have no antialiased edges, but it wouldn't work for other icons with antialiased edges they would look like **** on different coloured toolbars.

Am I right in thinking that I can preserve the antialiased areas on the IE toolbar? I'm pretty sure it can be done if the bmp is saved with transparency.

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Originally posted by honz12

twist, thanks for your mail, and your right. For the example you showed me. The magic pink is cool for simple icons which have no antialiased edges, but it wouldn't work for other icons with antialiased edges they would look like **** on different coloured toolbars.

Am I right in thinking that I can preserve the antialiased areas on the IE toolbar? I'm pretty sure it can be done if the bmp is saved with transparency.

nah magic pink is the only way :(

you'd have to go through pixel by pixel and make them solid colors so the purple doesn't show through.

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