Best transparent GIF settings Photoshop

This page demonstrates how to use Adobe Photoshop to create a transparent area in a GIF image, for example, to create a transparent background.

Example

	This image has no transparency - the background is white. As long as the image is on a white background there's no problem - it looks transparent anyway.
	If the image is placed on a coloured background, the lack of transparency becomes obvious.
	If the white background is made transparent the image will blend nicely into (almost) any coloured background.

Creating Transparency

	If necessary, zoom in on the image so you can clearly see the edges. Using the magic wand or lasso tool, select the area you want to be transparent. Note: You may want to experiment a few times with the tolerance and anti-aliasing settings to get just the right selection.
	Hit the Delete button. The selected area is removed and a checkered background becomes visible. This background is not part of the image — it is there to show you which parts of the image will be transparent.

From the File menu select Save As... and save the image as a GIF. A window will prompt you for colour options — make sure the Transparent option is checked.

Note: Experiment with the other options in this window to see how various combinations work. These can make a difference to things such as how smoothly the edges of the image fade into transparency. If you find that the edges look jagged and ugly, see this solution.

If you have any questions please ask in our Graphics Forum.

Make sure you have your image on its own layer with no background.

This is the #1 mistake people make, in older versions of Photoshop you would have saved it on a colored background

2

Now go File>Save for web

You should see this box open.

3

Make your setting gif and use the smallest amount of colors you can without affecting the appearance of the image.

The 2 things to remember here are:

1. Make sure Transparency is selected.

2. Set the Matte color to the closest match of the background color you will be placing the image on. If you are unsure then set the Matte to “None” (more about Matte in step 4)

Click ok and save your image.

4

Some more information on Mattes.

Mattes puts a thin outline around the image to get rid of what we call halos.

On the right you can see an example of a halo. Look familiar? This is the sign of an amateurish webpage. Believe me there are already enough bad webpages out there without us adding to them. 🙂

5

Here is the same image with Matte set to none. Notice the halo is gone, but it is still a bit jaggy around the edges.

6

Here is the same image, this time saved with a black Matte. Notice how nice and sharp it is?

Always choose a matt color if you can. This way all your transparent gifs will look nice and clean.

This Matte trick will also work with transparent PNGs.

Stay tuned for more 🙂

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