Alpha Channel and Layer Effects

[bantha43]

I want to create an alpha off some text with an outer glow. I CTRL click the layer to select the transparency, but all that is selected is the text. Is there an easy way to select the entire layer with the glow to create an accurate alpha? I've tried the route of creating a layer off the effect (via right clicking the f) and selecting the new layer's transparency, it just seems cumbersome. Thanks in advance.

[Greg Gaspard]

Short of flattening the text layer to merge the effect and type, then selecting the transparency of the merged layer, it sounds like you've hit on a pretty good method (at least one that keeps your text editable). Maybe you can create an action to automate your method?

[Mathias Vejerslev]

If you have white text with white glow on a black background, you could ctrl-click the composite RGB channel in the channel palette to load the luminosity.

Mathias

[bantha43]

Unfortunately I found a glitch with my previous workaround. Once the glow is on it's own layer and I select it's transparency, it assumes the opacity of the glow effect, in this case 75%. I can't use it to generate an alpha because the entire glow is semi-transparent (as opposed to the edges only). When I import the image with the alpha in to another program, the entire image is semi- transparent.

[Mark Reynolds]

Ok – well you need to increase the opacity of the glow before creating layers. You can also Levels adjust the alpha after you make it (to make it span the whole 256 range if necessary)

Your method isn't cumbersome - dynamic layer effects are not rasterised as such and need to be before their transparency can be saved.

If you want the text transparency and the glow. Merge the text and effects with a blank layer underneath