Re: Graphic converter query - transparency

Woody <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Woody <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

It's a question I would have thought the manual would help me with, but
it seems not.

Can anyone tell me how to make a (currently white) area around the
outside of an image into a transparent region using Graphic Converter?

Although not a user of graphic converter, assuming it works in a
similarish way to other things, you can only change an area to
transparent if you want to make a gif, which I assume you don't if you
are making an icon.

I dunno - I recall icons with transparent (missing, more like) bits
under < OS X, so why can't I have 'em with OS X?

Well, you can, but that isn't what the finder uses for transparent
images (I don't think).

Well, with ResEdit, you could define a mask to blank off regions of the
icon square that you didn't want to count as `part of the icon'.

Sometimes, this mask was used in an annoying fashion so that the icon
had holes in it thus making it hard to click.

Sounds like `equivalent to transparency' to me - and one would assume,
in a sensible world, that the Finder would interpret transparent parts
of an image given to it to use as an icon as `masked off bits' in that
fashion.

Having a look now, if you click the tool in the toolbox that looks like
a T crossed out that is on the right, 3 up from the bottom (this is
version 6 - I guess it is old, it isn't something I use), you can click
on a colour and all of that colour becomes transparent.

Ah - yes, so it does. So why couldn't I find that mentioned in the
manual? Hmm...

the other way is to copy the part that isn't white and paste it into a
new transparency.

Okay, I need to learn what that means. I've STFW and got horribly
confused. Anyone got a pointer to a site I could read that'd teach me
what I need to know to understand this?

What I meant is that if you have a large area around the outside of an
image that is white, if you select everything that isn't white (ie, the
rest of the image) and copy it, you could paste it in a new transparent
image.

Uhuh - damned awkward to do in practice, though, isn't it? I don't see
how I could do that job competently and I have tried using the lasso
tool.

When you say new image, there is a check box for transparent background.

Ah! Yes - thanks.

(I'm trying to make an HP32E icon for the 32E emulator from here
<http://www.bartosiak.org/nonpareil/index.html> - scanned in my
calculator, cropped in close, but I'm left with a bit of a border
because the sides are curved and I'd like it transparent)

And while I'm at it: what's the approved method of applying a custom
icon as a one-off in OS X?

Copy and paste into the Get Info. I did it yesterday so I know it works
ok (this was 10.5, but I remember it always working).

It worked, but not okay - as I related.

By worked, I meant it worked ok here.

Righto. But clearly what you did was significantly different to what I
did, 'cos it worked badly here.

I don't tend to have custom icons but I reinstalled my wifes macbook to
try and cure the wifi issues (it didn't) and she has them all over the
palace

All over the palace, eh? Moved up the property ladder, then?

I tried the obvious `Get Info' and then found I could paste my prototype
image in if I selected the icon in the top left - but although I gave it
a 128x67 pixel image, what I got ended up much lower resolution than
that and it's all blurry.

What said 128x67?

Nothing, but I was working on the idea that the OS could sort it out if
the image it was given wasn't square. Was that wrong of me?

I don't know. It would appear from your experience it was.

I'd like to find out what it was playing at.

Icons should be 128x128 32 bit argb (or is it rgba)?

Dunno what that means at all.

128 pixels square, with 8 bits used for red, green, blue and an alpha
channel.

Ah - righto. Now to find out what an alpha channel is.

I use the icon tool, paste it into that and save it as a graphic.

Umm. `The icon tool'?

I am not sure if icon composer is a normal thing or gets installed with
the developer tools. I think it is.

You think it is what? I don't have anything on my boot volume called
icon composer.

No, I checked, it is part of the development tools.

Righto.

You can do it in photoshop so I am
sure you can do it in graphic converter

I'm confused. You seem to be telling me to use some special tool called
icon tool or icon composer (which I don't have) and also Photoshop or
Graphic Converter.

No, I said I did it in either icon composer (which you don't have)

I think I might well install the developer tools one of these days. But
I've got a lot of setting up to do yet. Just got MacTeX 2007 installed
and customised to my spec and my head hurts as it usually does when I do
that job.

or
photoshop.

which I can't afford and have almost no use for.

However, I was guessing you could do it in graphic converter as well. I
didn't know, as it is not something I use.
However, I just did and it works. This is what I did.

In graphic converter I made an image of 128 x 128 with a transparent
background. I made my image (just a rubbish image as a test).
I then saved it as a tiff.
I then got info on the tiff, selected the image at the top left and
copied it. I then got info on a folder and selected the top left icon
and said paste.
The folder now has the custom icon.

That method worked okay here. So now I have nonpariel-32e with a
scanned in image of my real HP-32E calculator as its icon.

<heh> Four RPN calculators on DragThing (and another couple on
Dashboard). And yes that does make some sort of sense. One of them's
arbitrary precision, one of them's got a very nice UI so it's very nice
to use (via app or widget), one of them's a clone of the real pocket
calculator I've been using for the last 30-odd years, and the other two?
One of them's a clone of a *powerful* HP calculator, and the other's a
very space efficient widget with a rolling stack display that ought to
be useful but isn't as handy as I thought.

Still, I tend to grab the real calculator any time I need to do a bit of
arithmetic. It's a lot quicker to use.

Thing is, that's what Mac Help appears to tell me to do.

Ahh.. never read that!

<shrug> What else can one do?

Play around with it until it works generally.

I've tried that with Graphic Converter for many many years and you know
what? I can't get it to work as I want.

In general, I learn pretty much nothing at all from playing around with
software in the absence of a good manual or someone to explain a bad
manual to me.

And you know that's the case.

Thanks for the ideas,
Rowland.

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Graphic converter query - transparency
    ... Well, you can, but that isn't what the finder uses for transparent ... icon square that you didn't want to count as `part of the icon'. ... that was an odd thing looking at the manuals. ... TeX isn't that big. ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
  • Re: Graphic converter query - transparency
    ... outside of an image into a transparent region using Graphic Converter? ... icon as a one-off in OS X? ... icon tool or icon composer and also Photoshop or ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
  • Re: Graphic converter query - transparency
    ... outside of an image into a transparent region using Graphic Converter? ... icon as a one-off in OS X? ... I use the icon tool, paste it into that and save it as a graphic. ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
  • Re: Graphic converter query - transparency
    ... outside of an image into a transparent region using Graphic Converter? ... icon square that you didn't want to count as `part of the icon'. ... that was an odd thing looking at the manuals. ... scanned in image of my real HP-32E calculator as its icon. ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
  • Re: Graphic converter query - transparency
    ... on a colour and all of that colour becomes transparent. ... I get a couple of hits for that too, so we have different manuals. ... icon said 'transparency' in my head). ... TeX isn't that big. ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
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