Transparent backgrounds for images

Ah, this is a common problem.

You have an image, but you need the background to become transparent. Tricky - until now...

I used Pixlr for this - a lovely, free, online version of Photoshop. There's a guide to how to do this in Photoshop at Media College which is where I'm basing this on.

1. Create a new layer - use the layer box on the right
2. Unlock the base layer by double clicking the padlock
3. Select the new layer and move it down to become the base
4. Select the original layer again
5. Use the magic wand tool to select the background
6. Hit delete

That should work to make the background transparent, although you might have to be quite picky about the area you select and you may also need to clean up the image.

When you save the image it HAS to be saved as a PNG - JPG doesn't support transparency.

Jim says you can do this in Paintshop Pro as well.