Antialiasing A Transparent Gif to a Background

[MPoling]

Hi,

I'm using a .gif of a signature file, which I must put into a newsletter template with an orange background. (The template was created before my time, and I don't believe the orange is a websafe color. In any case the template is beyond my control.)

First I took the .gif file and using the color dropper matched it to the background of the newsletter. When I load the gif into the newsletter, the color almost works, but it isn't exactly correct.

Next I made the gif transparent (using flat, stained glass transparency.) So great, that worked fine, but of course there was no antialiasing, so all kinds of white pixels are showing up against the orange background.

I've tried and tried to anti alias the transparent .gif to an orange background, but can't get it to work. I figure that while the not-quite matching color in a rectangual is fairly noticeable, it should be fine enough for the anti-aliased pixels.

When I try to export my gif, the document background color shows up as a color in the export. If I ignore the color, it is exported as a transparent gif with an orange background. If I set the orange background color to transparent, then I'm back to having a signature that is all black and white and not antialiased to the background.

How can I get just the line image in the .gif to antialias to the background color I've set?

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.

Monica