transparent background

[Richard...@adobeforums.com]

Hi all, i've taken a picture of myself with my company truck and
erased all surrounding... all is nice.. now i'd like to turn the empty background area that i've erased (which is now all white) into transparency..

How would i do that... thanx.

Richard.

[Ed Hannigan]

Easy way: Make sure the background is a Layer (not flattened) then click on it with the Magic Wand and Delete.

There are better ways that are more complicated.

I suggest you do this on a duplicate file just in case.

[Phosąfour dots]

What will the final destination be for the image's use?

Print or web?

[Silkr...@adobeforums.com]

Yeah if you would have unlocked the layer first, you would be done. Just remember not all file formats support transparency. Best to stick with one like psd, png, tiff, tga. forget jpg.

[Richard...@adobeforums.com]

the format is psd.. final destination will be a print shop for my business cards.

thanks guyz, much appreciated.

[Phosąfour dots]

Serve up the biggest file of your original image.

And for print? Initially, nothing less than PSD or TIFF while you're working and still making editing decisions.

You should be using a MASK instead of irrevocable erasure. That way you can fine-tune the edges without permanently destroying the original image capture.

How to learn masking, you ask?
Please bookmark the following link. Follow the links therein. Then explore, and practice, and experiment, and put aside your fear of mistakes; we all make them and we all learn from them.
<http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?128@@.3bb80e5d>

Tell us about the company who will be printing the B.C.s…what do they require? Have you spoken with them, or have you carefully read and absorbed what they ask for and require for file submission, in order to produce your cards?

[boblevine]

Photoshop is certainly not the ideal tool for this but if you're going
to use it, I suggest saving as PDF and submitting that for printing.

Bob

[Don_Mc...@adobeforums.com]

I suggest saving as PDF and submitting that for printing

And making sure any images within the PDF are created at a high enough resolution ... at least 200 ppi, preferably 300.

[Ed Hannigan]

Richard,

Unless you are putting the image on top of another image, you should be aware that for printing a transparent file is meaningless. White translates into "transparency". The paper color will show though unless the press if running white ink/paint.