Comments | gimp_users: Background Issue (Latest Version of GIMP)

noob_alchemist in gimp_users

Background Issue (Latest Version of GIMP)

Mar 07, 2009 03:15

I'm sure anyone who used Microsoft Paint knew that if you wanted to add a background to something, you made sure that the image's "background" was white before opening a new document and pasting your intended background in, then paste your image in on top of it, click the second little button with the shapes under the toolbox that doesn't have a ( Read more... )

layers, basic operations

Comments 8

alsterellie March 7 2009, 09:34:37 UTC

Are you workng with layers? Because then it would be just the same procedure, only that your background should be transparent instead of white. But that's easily managed.

noob_alchemist March 7 2009, 15:22:54 UTC

Yes I am, but I'm not sure how to make it transparent other than using the eraser to get rid of it all. Is there another way, or was the eraser what you were referring to?

noob_alchemist March 7 2009, 15:33:48 UTC

Nevermind, I got it. Thanks for the help!

lotiel_vanya March 7 2009, 09:36:59 UTC

If the picture's background is just one color, I suppose you could select it (ctrl-U), delete it and paste your new background as a new layer underneath. Then you can use the eraser with a fuzzy brush to make it look a little prettier at the edges.

noob_alchemist March 7 2009, 15:33:06 UTC

Ah, thanks so much, it worked! ♥

ionracas March 7 2009, 10:49:34 UTC

File->new

then click 'advanced options'

set the background to whatever you fancy

coldstofcalndrs March 7 2009, 19:32:34 UTC

what i do is have my intended background as my bottom layer, then make the image the layer on top. then, using the top layer go to color>color to alpha, when it says from *color* to alpha, make sure that that color is the color you will eliminate, click ok then BAM! your image is on your intended background
the tricky thing with this method is that coloring to alpha will eliminate all of that color, even if it is within your original image, but there's an easy way to fix this: put an extra layer between your two and color under your image using the brush...

...i hope that made sense. it's a lot easier than it sounds =S

politas March 9 2009, 04:48:32 UTC

Well, to be precise, in MS Paint, you make sure the background of the image is the same colour as the selected "background" colour, which makes MS Paint treat it as transparent for copy/paste purposes. So you could quite easily have two or more different colours used as the transparent background, simply by switching the background colour as needed.

It's a very clunky system, but you can do some remarkable things with it, given its original intended purpose.