This section contains detailed articles elaborating on some of the common issues phpBB users encounter while using the product. Articles submitted by members of the community are checked for accuracy by the relevant phpBB Team. If you do not find the answer to your question here, we recommend looking through the Support Section as well as using the Site Wide Search.

Transparent gif's [how to]

Description: I see lots of posts on here asking how to make transparent images for things such as site_logo.gif etc. This tutorial shows you to do it very easily using a free tool downloadable from the internet.

In Categories:

Link to this article: Select All
[url=https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3.1/kb/article/transparent-gifs-how-to/]Knowledge Base - Transparent gif's [how to][/url]

Making an existing gif transparent
  1. If you don't already have it Google "Paint.NET", download and install it.
  2. Once you have Paint.NET installed open up your gif, for example:

    Image
  3. Click the magic wand
  4. Set the tolerance to zero
  5. Click the red area and you will see:

    Image
  6. Hit the delete key
  7. The result is:

    Image

    Your gif is now transparent
  8. Save your edited gif
Making a new transparent gif
  1. Create a new gif in Paint.NET of whatever size you require
  2. Click on the white background with the magic wand and with tolerance set to zero
  3. Hit the delete key
  4. The gif is now transparent
  5. Add your text or other graphics and save it.
Tip

If the image you are making transparent doesn't have particularly good sharp edges you may find it looks 'bitty'. In other words it hasn't cleared all of the background to transparency. If this is the case try experimenting with the tolerance setting. You shouldn't need to go higher than 40% though.