Create A Transparent Image With Alpha Channel - Tutorial - Axialis

Home » What Is A Alpha Channel » Create A Transparent Image With Alpha Channel - Tutorial - Axialis

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All Axialis Software products support images with Alpha Channel transparency. PNG, BMP and PSD file format actually support alpha channel. If you want to create a nice icon (using Axialis IconWorkshop) or a screensaver with smooth sprites (using Axialis Professional Screen Saver Producer) we recommend you to use images with Alpha channel.

Alpha channels are masks through which you can display images. The alpha channel is an 8-bit channel, which means it has 256 levels of gray from 0 (black) to 255 (white). White acts as the visible area; black acts as the transparent area (you see the background behind the image when displayed). The level of gray in between determines the level of visibility. For example, 50 percent gray allows for 50 percent visibility. Alpha channels are usually used with 16.8M color RGB images. The resulting image is called RGBA (RGB+A, A means alpha channel).

In the illustration below you see how the alpha channel is applied to the original image to remove (visually) the orange gradient background. The result produces a 32 BPP (Bit Per Pixel) transparent image. The grey checkboard-like pattern shows the transparency of the image.

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We'll learn how to create a transparent image with Alpha Channel from a standard image. Photoshop contains powerful Alpha Channel manipulation features. We'll see here one of the simplest way to proceed: Extrude a part of the image and remove the existing background. Advanced techniques also exist to work with alpha channel. See Photoshop help to read more.

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