Done, sorry squire but pat is right.

No need to appologise for removing it. I just sometimes forget that as a collector of fine art and a aspiring artist, that some art pieces are not meant to be shown to every body. Maybe I'm getting blunted down to this kind of imagery and don't think that anything is wrong with displaying it, and not considering that other people may not apriciate this kind if images for the same reasons I do. So from now on I won't post any more mermaids. ;)

Just PM them to me! :)

and me too :TU:

igohigh - thanks, I will give your directions a whirl.

Feldon - I'm confident you will come to the aid of all who primarily use PSP, regardless of whether its your software of choice. There are a few of us who haven't yet been able to enjoy the full capacity of MAT2 due to not being able to figure out the logo creation process in PSP. Your time and efforts are much appreciated.

The same goes for anyone else who takes on this task.

Cheers!

igohigh - I followed your directions for PSP verbatim and was only able to get a little further than I had prior, which is fine b/c every little bit counts. Attached is a sample of the logo I created for MAT2 using your guidelines. When viewing in the SereneScreen the entire image (white box border and all) projects on the crystal. I've also had issues with getting the thing centered but perhaps that is a bit more trivial than getting it to work properly in the first place.

Anyone else please feel free to comment on what I'm not doing correctly so I can finally learn this process. Thanks so much to all of you for your help and guidance.

Did you try erasing the white?


Oh my God! Paint Shop Pro is a 55 MEGABYTE download? Photoshop is only twice as big -- 115MB. Jim sure likes to exaggerate...

The last one I downloaded was about 5 megs. I bought PSP 8 on CD, but I don't like it. I'm sticking with 7.

With the reliable help of my father I was able to get logos to work that were created in PSP. The directions posted earlier are almost identical to what we did, with a few minor exceptions noted below:
1. When saving as a PNG file you need to click "options" and select the "transparent" tab to make sure that your background is being saved with transparent properties
2. Maybe not a necessary step but I then went back to the folder where my image was being saved and opened it. This was to double check that the image was in fact saved with transparent properties.
For some reason PSP will not save an image with a transparent background (with any luck of keeping that important property) without also selecting the necessary options when saving the image as a PNG.
That was the big hang up that had me confused for the past several weeks. I should have consulted my father sooner.

That's right . Always ask dad :TU: :D :TU:

The last pirate for a while.
I sea ghosts...

spydrwebb; That's odd, I don't see a transparancy tab? But it worked here just as I stated...perhaps because I only have a trial version?
I wonder if perhaps you are starting with a solid background rather then a transparent base? Do you 'create' a new transparent image and then paste your image to it or try to create a transparent background from one that is not?
One thing to note is do Not collapse the layers before saving, even in PSD this will cause the background to go white (however PSD allows you to collapse one layer at a time all the way down, weird) perhaps PSP has some simular quirk about it. Try leaving the layers and just SAVE AS and the save will (should) create a single transparent layer.
Example would be the ghost pirate I just posted, it was three layers (bottom blank, ship what partially desaturated, and the ghost pirate fully desaturated - both with different opacity settings). Then I just did a Save For Web {PSD thing, just Save As in PSP} and it saved what you see here.

As for centering try this, a test pattern I made more centering mine. It's not very professional but it works.
It's already got a base transparent layer so just click the bottom layer and past yours so it's inbetween the test pattern and base, then align it (red shows where to stay within, black is Out) then delete the test layer and save -> Do Not flatten!!
http://home.earthlink.net/~igohigh4/pngtest.zip

Squier; I know the feeling as a LOT of my stuff is not sutable for the general public and I have to stop and think about where I am before posting something....I cringed after noticing I posted a mermaid but it was too late...oh well, next time she must get bigger sea shells! ;p

spydrwebb; I just tried it with your logo above and it worked. I'm kinda all thumbs in PSP so I could not quit duplicate the same layer properties as outlined in the posted PSD tutorial but it's close.
I've zipped three different versions for you; one greyscale semi-transparent, one full color, and one full color semi-transparent.

I'm not sure why yours is turning solid unless perhaps your trying to collapse the layers before saving....?

Here's your logo: http://home.earhtlink.net/~igohigh4/genslogo.zip

Hi all. I use PSP 8 (love that scripting it has) and I think the answer could be to look at the File menu, Preferences..., File Format Preferences, PNG.
The checkbox should not be checked, otherwise the transparency property goes into the Alpha Channel instead of showing up in the usual visible image. Might seem opposite of expectation.

Ok, PaintShopPro requires a really dumb process every time you want to save a transparent PNG. In Photoshop, it's a simple checkbox.


If you want to save a PNG with transparency in PSP, you must do the following steps:

1. Pull down the File menu to Save Copy As...

2. Type in a file name.

3. Select Portable Network Graphics (*.png) under Save As Type

4. Click the Options... button in the lower right corner.

5. Click the Run Optimizer... button in the window that appears.

6. Click the Transparency tab in the PNG Optimizer window that appears.

7. Select Alpha channel transparency.

8. Make sure Existing image or layer transparency is selected below.

9. Click OK.

10. Click Save.

If you try to save a transparent PNG without doing this method you will get this cryptic error message "Because of the limitations of the specified file format (and possibly the save options you've selected), the saved file will be limited to a merged image. Would you like to continue?".


The next time you save a transparent PNG, when you go through the steps above, you will see that all your defaults have been saved BUT you must still do this process for each and every PNG you save.

igo- I agree that its odd but that's what seemed to work for us, and what was necessary given all the things we tried. That merging characteristic you mentioned is exactly why I had to go through all those hoops with the transparency tab (sorry, it's actually not visible until you click on "run optimizer", I accidentally left this step out of my initial message). I would get an error stating that my current settings or preferences would have to be changed and PSP would merge the selection when trying to save it as a PNG. You're right, by merging everything the program loses its transparent background properties. Yes, I was creating everything with a transparent foundation but as mentioned, the program would change that by merging everything and in turn losing the transparent property of my image. Maybe I just repeated myself, sorry if that's the case.

REPLY TO URL
Here's your logo: http://home.earhtlink.net/~igohigh4/genslogo.zip

Tried to follow... link is broken and leads to a cannot find error - FYI.

Morgan was posting his linear directions at the same time I was clarifying the run optimizer situation... impeccable timing.

Thanks for clearing everything up, Morgan! Told you I had all due confidence...

My bad Spidrwebb, my keyboard misspelled Earthlink.
Here's the corrected link:
http://home.earthlink.net/~igohigh4/genslogo.zip

Hey - I am very new to this - I downloaded the PNG Packs and put them in the default directory and when I go into settings? Just the default clocks - What am I doing wrong? In case I can't find my way back here my email is meerupps@hotmail.com

Thanks to any that can help - I love the Garfield - they are all in the directory but don't show up in settings...