Transparent bitmap (bmp)

[stratocast]

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]

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]

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

Christine

[gwpriester]

Or placing the bitmap over something solid on the page?

Gary

[stratocast]

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.

Er .. "Animation 10cs delay" ?

This line is always present in my Bitmap Gallery.

You sure you exported as bmp an not gif?

Yup.

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

Attached.

[Intbel]

Attached.

Not quite >grin<

[stratocast]

Ooops! Post edited.

[Intbel]

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 ..