Creating transparent images

Creating transparent images is easy - the walkthrough shows how to do it using Lview on the PC and Graphic Convertor on the Macintosh

Windows and Lview - Step 1

When you've loaded the picture into Lview, select the Options menu, and then choose Background colour. If you don't have a copy of Lview, you can download it from ftp.demon.co.uk, in the simtel/win3/graphics directory.

Step 2

Select the colour that you want to use as a background and then click on 'OK' to return to the main screen

Step 3

When you save the image, you must make sure that you save it in GIF89a format, rather than any of the other options. If you don't, you the background colour won't appear to be transparent.

Step 4

This is what you'd see in NetScape if you used the original image - it's certainly not the most elegant way to put buttons on your pages.

Step 5

And this is the transparent version, but remember that if you make it into a link, you'l still see the outline of the image

Macintosh and Graphic Convertor - Step 1

It's simple to make transparent images on the Mac with Graphic Convertor. This is the dialogue box that appears when you select Colours and then Transparent GIF colour from the Picture menu

Step 2

Choose the colour that you want to make transparent and then click in the box, and you'll see a preview. You won't see any difference when you return to the main window, though.