Re: Graphic converter query - transparency

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Woody <usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 
> > Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > 
> > > Woody <usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 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'.

You could. Back in the pre osx days, icons were 32x32 in 8 bit with a 1
bit transparency. I assume that OSX can still cope with those, but they
do look odd.

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

Some icons were more annoying than others - especially really thin ones
where you double clicked them and nothing happened as you got a gap.

> 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
> fa****on.
> 
> > 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...

Don't know. I found it in the manual.
I couldn't see anything in the area of the menus I expected to see it,
so I typed 'transpa' in the manual and found it.
It actually told me the tool was in a different place (it said 2 up),
but once I knew it was there it was easy enough to find it (not that the
icon said 'transparency' in my head).

It was on page 149 of the 'hagens' manual, whatever that was. Actually
that was an odd thing looking at the manuals. I just wanted the manual,
but the first option was 'Open hagens manual'.

> > > > 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.

Depends on the image - some images are easy, some not using the 'magic
wand' type tool.

> > 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?

Wish we had, then we would have all the chavs falling into the moat
outside!

> > > > 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.

It is an 8 bit channel covering transparency level, where full alpha
(255 or in OSXs terms, 1.0) is completely opaque, 0 is completely
transparent, and all the values in between are a varying amount of
transparency.

> > > > 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.

I almost downloaded TeX at one point but I looked and it was huge - many
hundreds of meg and it was the first time I had got close to my download
limit so I didn't.
Truth to tell I have no need for it, especially as I am one assignment
away from fini****ng my Open University degree!

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

Its an advantage when work pay for these things.

> > 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.

I guess you calculate more than me!
I just have the basic calculator on OSX, and two real casio calculators.
One is good on various base functions and everything else but lacks
natural logarithms, and is programable which you can't take into OU
exams, and the otherone isn't doesn't and isn't, and I can!

Oh yes, I have a basic calculator with really big display and buttons
which I use on shows to the public with my wifes shop.

> 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.

Same here, which is probably one of the reasons I never use graphic
converter. In fact I greatly dislike it.


-- 
Woody

www.alienrat.com