How to make transparent tif in photoshop?

Hi,

I'm trying to take some simple logos (originaly in tif or eps format) remove their backgrounds and re-save them as tif files with transparent backgrounds that can be imported into Quark. The images need to be CYMK for printing.

Photoshop 6 Help says to simply select "transparent" as an option while saving the tif. In practice, this option is greyed out.

The process I have used so far is to open the eps or tif file, change the background to a layer, select and delete the area which needs to be transparent and then try to use "save as" to get the new tif file. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Diane

Diane
Diane's Blog

Ok, so hacking around...

I select the non-transparent part of the image, and go to channels and create a new alpha channel. I tell it to be alpha 0 and i make sure the part i want transparent is white while the part i want colored is black.

Then I try saving as tif. It now lets me save the alpha channel, but when i reopen the file the background is white.

Arrrrggggggg! Am I getting warmer?

Diane
Diane's Blog

I have been trying to do the same thing, without success. PS 6 Help files make it seem easy, but like you said, the transparent option is greyed out, and I have been unable so far to save the tif with the alpha channel intact.

I found it! Cool!

Go into Preferences/Saving Files, and check Enable advanced Tiff Save Options. Now the dialog box that comes up for compression, etc. will allow transparency and the enigmatic Image Pyramid option.

Seems like another worthless "option" from Adobe that should be the default.

http://talkgraphics.infopop.net/1/Op...&ul=1101906325 [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Eye Site Web Design
Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll

The advanced tiff option is not default "on" because most other apps can't read/open/import advanced tiff.
As for X-press: as far as I know you have to use clipping paths because postscript needs'em to work with transparancy.

http://www.photoshopgurus.info/forum...ine=1019851685

[This message was edited by Erik Heyninck on August 16, 2002 at 11:34.]

Hello Diane,

Please see the attached for basic instructions on creating a "single" alpha channel for .tif export. But first, convert your image to CMYK if it isn't. Go to "Image/Mode/CMYK.

Before you export, make sure your selection is (still) ACTIVE and you see it crawling around on your image... then choose "Save a Copy" and make sure you UNCHECK "Exclude Alpha Channels" option at the bottom of the dialog. If this is greyed out, you did not save the selection as a channel. Using the "Save a Copy" method is the path of least resistance.

YES, you can use "Save as" for a SINGLE (base)layer file and go ahead with a .tif file format.

But, if you had created layers in the file you want to export as .tif, you can't use the "Save as" option. Using the "Save a Copy" method, you are able to export as .tif, leaving the layers intact (in case you wanted to keep a PSD file on hand). Furthermore, you can export a .tif from any active layer using the alpha channel (provided it's active). This can be handy for cutouts using a mask derived from one layer and applied to another, then exported. Keep in mind, you can't have more than one alpha channel in the channels palette for tif export. Of course, you can save as many channels (and Layers) as you want to a PSD file.

After having said all this, and if Quark is the destination. Shouldn't you be able to export the selected portion as a PSD with or without layers? Or even without having to created a channel? I have never worked with Quark, so I don't know this. I know Quark handles EPS, but don't know if you'll get the same results as a .tif.

Good Luck,

Wayne

Good stuff Wayne.

"The lessons to be learned, are found along the path of your journey, not at your final destination. That is only where you will rest, between lessons"

A channel is a container in which specific data are stored. For example: the Cyan channel contains the all information about the cyan part of the file. An alpha channel contains all information on a mask that has been added to a file.
This mask is either a saved quickmask or a selection that has been saved. Nothing more, nothing less. So including a mask in a file does not do anything in itself apart from making the file bigger. What you can do is reload the selection at any time, even when you open in another app, or in Photoshop after you've closed the file.

1/ Open your tif and doubleclick on the background in the Layers Palette so as to make it a layer. Accept Layer0 as name (or give another one).
2/ Select the part that you want to keep visible
3/At the bottom of the Layers menu you have several small icons. Choose the second one from the right. The one that has a light circle on a dark background and that says "add a layer mask". Click on this icon, and immediately the pixels you did not select will become transparant.
4/ In your Channels Palette you will now see a new channel called LayerOMask.
5/ Save as tif. Photoshop will ask about including layers. Accept and you will be able to save transparancy.

If you work with Photoshop6, you must set in your preferences that you want to work with advanced tiff.

Now you can open this tiff with everything transparant but your selected pixels in the few programs that accept transparancy in tiff.

X-Press does not. It needs a clipping path because that's the only transparancy that Postscript really knows: a simple hard edged discarding of the information that you did clip. So how do you make a clipping path?

1/ Do as above up to the moment you have made your selection
2/ Open your paths palette and click the icon that's like a circle with a chinese hat on, the one that says make work path from selection. This gives you a dialog box in which you can set the tolerance. Very low values make extremely accurate paths, high values are less accurate. The default is 2. This setting depends on the accuracy you want and the complexity of your path. Try this out, and start with the default setting.
3/ Any information inside the clipping path is opaque, the rest is transparant.
4/ Now double click the path name and give it a good, recognisable name.
5/ Click on the little arrow at the right-hand top of the Paths Palette and choose Clipping Path from the dropdown list.
6/ The flatness value means that you can simplify the path by entering here a higher number. I personally prefer 3 or 4 here.
6/ Save as PhotoshopEPS. Choose whether you want a preview and which quality, choose ASCII or Binary from the dropdownlist
7/ Save.

This should work.

http://www.photoshopgurus.info/forum...ine=1019851685

O, I forgot: clipping paths can be a nuisance (postsript too!!!), so, if possible, make the work simpler and import the page on which the logo has to be placed in Photoshop, work as said with the layer mask, flatten. Then set to CMYK and save as tif. No transparancy needed anymore, and also no problems.
Or tell the printer to change to InDesign that allows you to open a PSD file in all its spendour and possible properties.

(I admit that I am not a Quark X-Press user.)

http://www.photoshopgurus.info/forum...ine=1019851685

Yes, Erik, I agree - InDesign 2.0 rules! Gradated transparency, no more hard-edged clipping masks which can trip the RIP.

K
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/
www.klausnordby.com/xara