Problems with transparent backgrounds

[Annika Sedwall]

Hi,

I am trying to make a eps file whicht shows a hand-drawn product and I would like the background to be transparent. I have opened the eps file in photoshop and marked the background + press delete. On the screen everything looks alright to me. The background is checked which according to my knowledge would mean transparent.

My problem arises when i mount the eps file into pagemaker. No matter how I do this the background is still white. Does anybody have a clue???

Best regards
Annika

[nuttin]

What format are you using to save the file? Or export the file? I haven't
used this program in ages, but I seem to recall that you need to save as a
..gif.

"Annika Sedwall" <annika.sedwall@absolent.se> wrote in message
news:2ccd8276.-1@webx.la2eafNXanI...

> Hi,
>
> I am trying to make a eps file whicht shows a hand-drawn product and I

would like the background to be transparent. I have opened the eps file in
photoshop and marked the background + press delete. On the screen everything
looks alright to me. The background is checked which according to my
knowledge would mean transparent.

>
> My problem arises when i mount the eps file into pagemaker. No matter how

I do this the background is still white. Does anybody have a clue???

>
> Best regards
> Annika
>

[Elena Murphy]

I don't believe EPS supports transparency. You should save as a file format that does such as PSD or TIF.

[Chuck Snyder]

According to the Elements 2.0 User Guide, Photoshop EPS does support
transparency, but for images in Bitmap mode only.
"To display white areas in the image as transparent, select Transparent
Whites." (p. 229)

[Barbara Brundage]

Chuck, I think this also has to do with how Pagemaker handles EPS files. I think I've seen threads in the pagemaker forum about this problem with other graphics apps also, if I'm remembering rightly.

[Elena Murphy]

It's not really a problem, and it's not exclusive to PageMaker. You just can't have tranparency in EPS. If you create an image with transparency in Elements, save it as an EPS, and reopen it in Elements, the transparency is replaced with white.

[Barbara Brundage]

Hi, Elena. I thought that one of the features of Pagemaker was the ability to save transparency in EPS files by use of clipping paths, although I don't know how you'd duplicate that in Elements. Sorry, guess I was wrong.

[Chuck Snyder]

Elena, I've never tried EPS so I can't claim any experience....but the User
Guide specifically addresses transparency in EPS. To what, then, is the
User Guide referring? I'm confused...

Chuck

[Elena Murphy]

That's saying the white areas of a Bitmap image will be _displayed_ as transparent; it doesn't say that the already transparent areas of an image will actually STAY transparent.

You can't actually have transparency (as represented by the checkerboard pattern) in a Bitmap mode image. If you try to create a new image in Elements, and you select Bitmap mode, you'll see the transparent background option go away.

So when you import a Bitmap EPS into, say, Illustrator, the white areas will appear transparent, but it's not exactly the same thing as saying that format "supports" transparency in the same way that Elements and TIFF formats do. Which is to say that when you reopen the image in Elements, the transparency will still be there, because in the case of the Bitmap EPS, it won't.

Does that make sense? It's a thin line, I agree, but EPS is really a printer description format and printers don't understand "transparent" the same way most people mean it. The Bitmaps white areas will appear transparent, but if you reopen it in Elements, they'll still be white. Whereas, if you reopen a PSD or TIF file with transparency preserved, the transparent areas will still be transparent, and you'll still see a checkerboard in the background.

[Pete D]

Chuck,

Any idea what "select Transparent Whites" available in bitmap mode means?
(#5 pg 229)

[Chuck Snyder]

Elena, that's a great clarification - thanks very much!

Chuck

[Elena Murphy]

NP. I thought you guys had me for a minute there. I had to go back and double check! :-D