As we mentioned, here we are going to focus on adding a transparency effect to any image that we load in the application. Therefore, we must make use of several of the functions available in the program itself. Of course, once we have created this effect, we will see that it is not as complicated as it might seem at first. In fact, her own Adobe He is already in charge of trying to make things easier for us in this regard. So, next, we are going to explain how to use these transparencies in Photoshop.
How to create the main alpha layer
Photoshop reflects transparency to us as a mosaic of gray and white squares. The purpose of this mosaic is to indicate that we are dealing with a transparent layer. When we export or save the project, these boxes will not be seen in the final result. They are only indicative for the editing process.
When we create a new photoshop projectthis will be white by default, unless in the project configuration we have specified another color, or a transparency (in which case, we will already have part of the work saved).
If we already have a document created, and the background layer does not have transparency, what we will have is a background that we cannot eliminate in any way. Whether it is white, or whatever color it is, we cannot delete it, neither using the eraser nor with the delete key after selecting everything we want to delete.
If we need that layer background (the one that is created by default with a new project) is transparent, what we must do is unlock it. And we can do this easily by clicking on the lock icon that appears to the right of the layer.
Once unlocked, this background layer will already have enabled its transparency alpha layer. If we use the eraser tool, for example, we can see that we can remove the white color and leave only the mosaic of boxes that shows the transparency.
Now, if we import into the project any other photo with transparency (for example, a PNG with an alpha layer), we can see that this transparency is already enabled. Now we can take advantage of it to create the effects we want.
What if the original image has no transparency?
We already have the transparent background layer, with images with alpha layer we won’t have any problem. However, what if the image we added to photoshop doesn’t have transparency? The first thing we will see is that it will have a background, generally white, which will look very bad when editing.
Luckily, it’s very easy to convert this new image to an image with transparency. The first thing we must do is turn it into a “smart object”. And for this we only have to select an editing tool (the rubber, for example), and click on the image, with the selected layer.
We accept the message that appears and this layer will already be an intelligent object that we can edit without problems. If we use the eraser, for example, we can delete the content that we are not interested in seeing in our project. However, it is difficult to erase, for example, a white background using the eraser.
This is where our skills as designers come into play. For example, if we want to easily remove the background from the image, we recommend using Photoshop’s magic wand, or any other selection tool, to select the background. And once selected, with the DELETE key we will delete the entire selection. We must play with the tolerance to get the best precision to erase the background without altering the rest of the image.
We already have an image (the Windows 10 logo) with transparency on a transparent background. Now we only have to export it to the format that best suits our needs. When we open it in any viewer, or again in Photoshop, we can see that only the logo appears and, although we have saved the canvas, it does not appear as it is transparent.
Be careful, not all formats support transparency
Not all image formats They support transparency. Like the alpha layer it is also optional; there may be a photo in a supported format (such as PNG) without a transparent layer.
The main formats compatible with transparency are:
Therefore, when we go to choose the output format of our project in Photoshop we must take this into account. The most common and compatible one we can choose is PNG. Of course, we must bear in mind that the photo will occupy much more than if we save it in another format with compression, such as JPEG, however, it is the best format if we want to preserve quality and compatibility. The WebP format takes up less space than the PNG format, however it is not very compatible with editing applications. The same happens with the .SVG format. The .GIF format is compatible with a large number of applications, however, it does not have the same quality as if we can find it in the .PNG format. When working with Photoshop, we should not skimp on the size of the files, since the only thing we are going to achieve is that the images do not have the highest possible quality, so, whenever possible, we should not skimp on the size of the file, both of the files with which we are going to work and the files resulting from our work.
If we have installed the WebP plugin for Photoshop, we recommend opting for this format, especially if we are going to use our photos on the web. WebP offers compression at the level of JPEG, but it is compatible with the alpha layer, so in a small size we can enjoy transparency. The problem is that it is not compatible with other photo editors and, in fact, it is not compatible with Photoshop unless we install the corresponding plugin from its website.
Hence precisely the importance that this format is gaining little by little, especially in Internet graphic content. In fact, at this time not all image viewer programs are capable of working with WebP. However, in Photoshop, what is the software solution that interests us in this case, we will not have any problem.
Once we know all this, it is important to pay special attention to the saving process of the project in which we have been working to add transparency. At first all we do is save the resulting file in the conventional way. However, in this case we will have to take a look at the drop-down list that contains all the formats supported by the Adobe program. Thus, from the usual option of Save as of the application, we will have to choose one of the formats mentioned above.
Otherwise, and if we choose some type of file that is not compatible with this display format, all the work we have done before will be useless.
Webs to add transparency to an image
Photoshop is the program that will give us the best results when it comes to adding a layer of transparency to our photo. But doing it well takes time, time that we may not be interested in dedicating to the photo, depending on its purpose.
These web applications that we will talk about next will be very helpful in the event that you do not want to complicate your life in the adobe program. And it is that despite the fact that the process explained before is not too complicated, new users in these conflicts could find some inconveniences in the process. Among the advantages offered by the applications that we are going to mention, we find that the application of transparency is carried out automatically. In addition, all this is done without the need to install any software on our computer, we just have to use our favorite Internet browser.
For this reason, if we don’t want to complicate ourselves and we can use quick tools, we can resort to some online image editors that have functions to eliminate the transparency of the photos. One of these online image editors is . This website allows us to upload the photos we want and has several tools to edit and improve it. Of course, the transparency tool allows us to make any part of the photo transparent with a single click, without complications.
Another very fast alternative that we have is . This website allows us to upload any PNG image that we have on the computer and automatically adds an alpha layer to the background, so it becomes transparent. By downloading the already processed photo we can start working with it as we would with any other photo with a transparent background. Therefore, all this will save us a good amount of effort and time.
Another option, if we do not want to use any web page and Photoshop does not fit into our monthly payment plans, is to use GIMP, the so-called free Photoshop with which we also have the option of selecting the background that we want to remove to make it transparent and to be able to use it on any other image in the form of a layer, since this application works in the same way as Photoshop. The process to remove the background of an image to make it transparent is the same, and where we can use the eraser tool or manually select the areas that we want to remove and then press the Delete key to remove it from the image. Finally, to preserve this change, we must export the result to .PNG format.