Exporting to Tif/Png with Alpha Channels intact?

[KBOC]

hey all...

I did a drawing with Xara, and I'd like to export it to a Png or Tif so that the background has and transparencies have intact alpha channels.

Help says it's possible, but I can't figure out how... any help?

[KBOC]

hey all...

I did a drawing with Xara, and I'd like to export it to a Png or Tif so that the background has and transparencies have intact alpha channels.

Help says it's possible, but I can't figure out how... any help?

[John Rayner]

export your drawing as a PNG with truecolor+alpha. see pic...

[gwpriester]

The bigger question is, to which application are you creating the 32-bit PNG for? This could make a difference.

Also, if you have a rectangle behind your objects, do not select the rectangle, unless you have set it to be transparent. Otherwise, Xara will use the background rectangle and it will be non-transparent and the alpha-chanel will not be apparent.

If you have done everything correctly, it will appear as it does is John's screen capture showing now background.

Gary

[traceyp]

Surely, the point should also be made that TIFs do not support transparency - or if it does, it's the first I've heard of it. Only GIFs and PNGs support transparency. Of these I would suggest that PNG is the better of the two due to the number of colours it can support as GIFs are limited to 256 colours. Just my two penneth/cents!

Tracey

[diniel]

News to me too when I first saw it, but TIFFs do support transparency - just that Xara doesn't seem to be able to export with it. Try this file: Xara is happy to import it.

[diniel]

JPEGs also support transparency - this isn't a very good example but it is the only one I have.

Edit: OK, talkgraphics will only accept 300 KB and the file is 2.7 MB. Wish I never posted it now! Click here to download it offsite

[John Rayner]

hi Daniel,

I see the transparency in the tiff but not in the jpg.

[gwpriester]

There is indeed a 32-bit TIFF file format. It is not supported by Xara because Xara supports 32-bit PNG images. Photoshop can create a 32-bit TIFF as can other bitmap editing applicatons.

Gary

[diniel]

John, huh then that beats me! WinXP's thumbnail shows it as transparent, and the website I downloaded it from suggested it was too. Serif PagePlus v10 which I installed and worked on the image with didn't have a problem either.

On checking, Fireworks MX2004 and Freehand MXa show it with a white background too. I guess I'm spouting partial nonsense, so will be quiet now http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif