i,

I've copied into Sitespinner a cool pre-made button, but it has a white background, and I only want the button itself to show on page. I've tried to select transparent in the shading editor, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Is there a way to get rid of the white background so only the button itself appears on my page?

It all depends on the file type of your button. JPG or PNG do not support transparency, whereas GIF does.

Try a free program like Infranview to resave the image as GIF then set the background colour as transparent.

postyr,

The PNG-8 file format supports transparency the same as GIF files (single background layer color).

Thanks for the insight Larry

Thanks very much for your responses. I used the program you suggested and it worked fine.

I'm having the same problem with an image, so I downloaded the Infranview program. I was able to save the image to GIF, but I couldn't figure out how to change the background color from white to transparant. The program's menu doesn't have the background color options. Any pointers?

Thanks

Import the GIF into Sitespinner, and apply transparency, using the 'Object/Shading' editor.

In IrfanView, when you use File > Save As, and set the file type to GIF, you should see some options that include a checkbox, "Save transparent color". Check that. Then during the save IrfanView will ask you to click the color in the image that is to be transparent.

When you later import that image to your project via the Mona Lisa button, you will not see the transparent effect on your workpage. But you will see the transparency in preview or publish.

Mmmm.. Photoshop.

One small piece of advice with .gifs and transparencies no matter what image editor you use.

If you have the option to "matte" a transparent item take it. Especially if you may be resizing. You can always matte to your background color (matte ads a 1 or 2 pixel trim edge in the color you choose).

This helps keep the image edges from pixelating when you resize it.

Thanks guys, I will try it out.

Knowing my "graphics" knowledge, probably I'm doing something wrong LOL!

I went in IrfanView and opened the image (red background) and saved as "GIF." I chose the option to "save transparant color during saving." It promted me to click the image to set the transparant color, but when I clicked the image background, the image disappeared. I tried that several times, and still no success.

Thanks much

Without seeing the image you are working with, I am guessing that the image is predominately red. Therefore, most of your image would disappear when choosing the color red.

In Ifranview, try changing the background color to white before saving. Choosing the white background when saving may solve your problem.

quote:

It promted me to click the image to set the transparant color, but when I clicked the image background, the image disappeared. I tried that several times, and still no success.

That's the way it normally works -- the image where you set the transparency will disappear as the save completes.

But the key question is, has IrfanView actually saved the file? It may have put it somewhere you are not expecting.