Transparent bitmap (bmp)

**stratocast** · 14 October 2006, 10:22 AM

After posting (erroneously

) to the "export to precise dimentions without constaining proportions" thread. I was playing about with exporting drawings.

I created some shapes, stuck a rectangle behind (no outline, no fill), selected the rectangle only and exported to see what I would get with different formats. When I exported to bitmap (bmp), without changing anything in the export dialog, lo and behold, I got a TRANSPARENT bmp file. What the ....! Bmp doesn't support transparency, right.

First of all, I thought that it was actually a png or gif that had somehow been saved with the wrong extension. But when I changed the extension and tried to open it, Irfanview told me that it was indeed a bmp.

I cannot envisage any possible application for this, it's interesting though.

**Intbel** · 14 October 2006, 03:01 PM

Er .. "Animation 10cs delay" ?
You sure you exported as bmp an not gif?
I'd love to see a transparent bmp ... can you post it here?

**Christine Farrelly** · 14 October 2006, 03:09 PM

I would suspect it has actually got a white background. Have you tried opening it in another package?

Christine

**gwpriester** · 14 October 2006, 08:30 PM

Or placing the bitmap over something solid on the page?

Gary

**stratocast** · 14 October 2006, 09:02 PM

Christine, Gary - Look at the attached image in the original post. The bmp is the group of three shapes and a line. The two rectangles are "background" solid shapes to demonstrate that the bmp is indeed transparent. I was even able to apply a drop shadow to the group.

This is obviously an aberration. It appears that a drawing exported in the manner I described produces a file that Windows, Illustrator, Irfanview, Photoshop etc. recognise and treat as a bmp raster image.

However, all these programs see a bitmap with a black background. Whereas, when it is opened or imported into Xtreme it has a transparent background.

I just thought it was an interesting phenomenon/bug/feature.

Originally Posted by Intbel

Er .. "Animation 10cs delay" ?

This line is always present in my Bitmap Gallery.

Originally Posted by Intbel

You sure you exported as bmp an not gif?

Yup.

Originally Posted by Intbel

I'd love to see a transparent bmp ... can you post it here?

Attached.

**Intbel** · 14 October 2006, 09:06 PM

Originally Posted by stratocast

Attached.

Not quite >grin<

**stratocast** · 14 October 2006, 09:09 PM

Ooops! Post edited.

**Intbel** · 14 October 2006, 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by stratocast

Ooops! Post edited.

I am confused - which part is transparent? Hmmm .. confused is an understatement. Perhaps I need more coffee ...

The attached is a transparent image ..

**stratocast** · 14 October 2006, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by Intbel

I am confused - which part is transparent? Hmmm .. confused is an understatement. Perhaps I need more coffee ...

The black background. As I said, all other programs see a bmp with a black background (including web browsers). Right-click download the image and open it in Xtreme and you'll see what I mean.

On the other hand, maybe my copy of Xtreme is demonically possessed. Perhaps, I'm the only one who can see this - oooooooo!!