How to Make a Transparent Image See Through for a Website with Paint Shop Pro PSP

Make a transparent see through image.

You are frustrated because you want to make a transparent image for a website and a Google search has many suggestion, all escoteric about special html and java. All the while Paint Shop Pro is quite capable of producing a picture that you can see through quite easilly. Make a PNG image.

Save this jpeg picture "dolphins.jpg" to your "Pictures" folder.

Open Paint Shop Pro.
Open "dolphins.jpg" in PSP.

Click "Layers", "New Mask Layer", "Show all".
A window will appear. Choose "OK".
You will see a "Mask" layer and a "Raster" layer appear on the right in the "Layer" window.
"Mask - Raster 1" will be highlighted. Leave it.
Click "Layers", then "Properties".
A window appears with a "Overlay color" on the left and the "Opacity" rate in percent on the right.
Changing the color on the left will not make any difference.
Changing the opacity will, but leave it at 50%.
Click "OK".

Choose the "Flood Fill Tool" in the Toolbox on the left.
Place the curser over the picture and click the left mouse button three times.
You will see the picture become more transparent with each click.

Sometimes for some unkown reason this multi-click function will not work. There is a way around this. Click "Layers", "Properties" and "General" tab, as above. Then Choose the transparency (Opacity) you want - say 50%. Click "OK". Go ahead and use the "Fill" tool to make the image transparent.
Go to the top and click "PNG". "Transparency" tab, then "Alpha channel transparency".
Click the "Download Times" tab and you will see a download time of 14 seconds for a dial-up 56k connection. This is quite high, but with PSP you cannot make it any smaller with the transparent properties.
Click "OK" and save it as "dolphins2.png"

Open your website writing software program and insert the PNG image into a webpage.

Preview it.

You will see that the image is transparent.

AN EASY WAY

Now lets do it the easy way.
Load the dolphin.jpg image.
Double left-click the top color.
Select a shade of gray, say R.192, G.192, B.192.
Go to "Layers, "New Mask Layer" and click "Show all".
Left click the image with the "Fill" tool.
Save it as a PNG image with "Alpha channel transparency" ticked.
There you are!

Why doesnt PSP tell users that the program will create transparent images?
It would certainly help sales if they did.

And by the way. Get yourself and older Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8 version. The only bug when running it on Vista and Windows 7 is you have to begin cropping an image from the bottom right to top left. Resize any picture you are working on in this way.

The new PSP software by Corel is rubbish.

I use WYSIWYG Webbuilder. It is an excellent program for building websites and has image transparency built in so you can do it on the fly without having to directly modify the image. Another program that creates see through transparencies is Snagit, but this is complicated to use.

P.S. To make the multi-click function work:

Download the Filters which are a set of 9 bmp images.

Put the images in the "Texture" folder of PSP8.

Before you select "Layers", "New Mask Layer", "Show all" do the following:

Choose a main color like "blue".

Double left click the top color in the "Materials" window.

Tick "textures".

Choose Filter 40.

Then do "Layers", "New Mask Layer", "Show all" and continue.

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Toshiba Satellite Pro L300

The Toshiba Satellite Pro L300 offers a vivid 15.4" WXGA display and Intel Centrino processor technology. The L300 has all the essentials for business users in its simplistic yet functional design. Lets take a closer a look and see if the Satellite Pro really stands up to the competition.
Toshiba review unit had the following specifications:

* Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1GHz processor
* Intel X3100 Integrated Graphics
* 2GB RAM DDR2
* 160GB (5400 rpm) hard drive
* Windows XP Professional OS
* 15.4" WXGA 1280x800 screen
* Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11a/b/g)
* 10/100 Ethernet LAN
* Modem port
* VGA-15 pin
* DVD-SuperMulti drive (+/-R double layer) supporting up to 11 formats
* ExpressCard Slot
* SDCard Slot
* 3x USB 2.0
* Headphone and microphone jack
* webcam
* Battery: 6-cell (4800mAh) Lithium Ion battery
* Weight: 5.7lbs
* Starting price: $949

Build and Design

The Satellite Pro L300 has a very simple design. It has that sleek business appearance with its silver lid and black keyboard. You dont get any glossy imprint finishes with the L300. Dont let the plain looks fool you though, it still is very functional.

The chassis is solid and the overall design didnt feel cheap. It does feel heavy for my standards, but I am used to smaller Tablet PCs. Weighing in about 5.7lbs is usually average for a 15.4-inch notebook. The L300 hides dirt well, but you can start to see some scratches from normal wear and tear.

The plastic design seemed durable and didnt show any signs of flex. The hinge was even stiff and the screen stayed in place. The L300 comes with a good array of features for the price, but to me seems like an awkward sized notebook for business use, unless it stayed in your office.

Display

The 15.4" WXGA (1280x800) screen on the Satellite Pro L300 is above average. The colors are bright and vivid. The screen didnt have any problems or defects. The backlighting was fine in an office setting and easy to read. I didnt notice any signs of blacklight bleed through except for a tiny bit on the bottom by the taskbar.

The colors looked good at all angles and that is why I rated the screen as good. I didnt have a problem at any viewing angle. The only problem I had was when the screen was tilted all the way back the colors were distorted, but who uses their screen like this anyway.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the L300 is solid and didnt show any signs of flex, no matter how hard you typed. The keys have a nice response and are easy to read. The spacebar is a little smaller than I would like, but its not the end of the world. The keys even have a durable textured feel to them.

I didnt feel cramped when typing at all. The keyboard is the perfect size and the palm rest is comfortable to rest your hands on. I am used to typing on tablets, so I enjoyed having the extra keyboard room.

The touchpad is average. I like that it is indented into the palm rests because your finger never slips off. I mean you could use this touchpad with your eyes closed ... well, you know what I mean. The only problem was it was kind of slow when navigating and I couldnt change the responsiveness like on a mouse. The right and left click buttons worked fine as well.

Performance

The Satellite Pro L300 didnt have any problems running multiple programs or multi-tasking jobs with its Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz processor and 160GB hard drive. I could check email, open documents and surf the Web without any lag. The benchmarks are average and overall the L300 did good on its PCMark05 score compared to other notebooks in the same category. I am sure the fact it is running Windows XP instead of Vista helps out this business savvy notebook as well.
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