Will someone please remind me how to keep a transparent background when saving a photoshop image as a jpg?
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transparent BG as jpg?
- Thread starter Main Street USA
- Start date
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
Not exactly a flaw, just something the format wasn't designed to do. It's a slightly older format and of all the older ones out there, the only format that I know of that supports any kind of transparency is GIF... EPS (and with the newest versions) TIF support it with the use of a clipping path but the complexities of clipping paths are well beyond what most home users would be capable of and are designed for high resolution graphics that would not be good on the web to begin with due to download times...
NowInc
Well-Known Member
hehe..if you wanted to go there..you could also say that these formats support transparency...some thru alpha channels (clipping paths)..some thru just native handling::
PSD
Targa
IFF (Maya format..not Amiga)
SGI
PNG
JPEGs may be old and have some compression issues (using square pixels..blah) but its still a standard. I remember back when your only 2 choices (for web) were GIF or JPEG..gifs were crisper..but the 256 color limit really hurts...now with PNG...it seems to be geting better..but the file size is still not THAT acceptable. Its getting there
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
Originally posted by NowInc
hehe..if you wanted to go there..you could also say that these formats support transparency...some thru alpha channels (clipping paths)..some thru just native handling::
PSD
Targa
IFF (Maya format..not Amiga)
SGI
PNG
JPEGs may be old and have some compression issues (using square pixels..blah) but its still a standard. I remember back when your only 2 choices (for web) were GIF or JPEG..gifs were crisper..but the 256 color limit really hurts...now with PNG...it seems to be geting better..but the file size is still not THAT acceptable. Its getting there
If you really want to "go there" there are a good handful of formats that support transparency but the vast majority of them are no good for output meaning they have to be converted before they can be used on the web or in print. PSD is all well and fine but it won't load in a browser and with the exception of Indesign, cannot be loaded into DTP software without special plugins in a manner that preserves that transparency... Just like with the others, as a format to benefit the end user, in almost all cases, it has to be converted to a final format that offers much more limited options. As a working file these formats are great but after being applied to an object as a texture, being included into digital video, being converted to a web usable image or being converted to a professional print compatible image, that transparency usually goes right out the window... BTW, I didn't feel the need to bring up PNG since almost nobody uses it and you had already addressed it. 
spagmoid
Account Suspended
I consider it to be a design flaw. I think GIF's are older than JPG's, and they managed to handle transparency.
I was trying to import PNG's into a program a while ago and I ran into a problem with the transparency.. I don't remember what it was. I couldn't seem to get Photoshop to output PNG's with transparency. Do they not support that or something?
I was trying to import PNG's into a program a while ago and I ran into a problem with the transparency.. I don't remember what it was. I couldn't seem to get Photoshop to output PNG's with transparency. Do they not support that or something?
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't say it is a design flaw any more than a car not having a flatbed for hauling stuff is a design flaw. The way GIF gets its transparency is rather simple and something that wouldn't work all that well in a format that supports gradient tones like JPEG. In a format like GIF which uses indexed colors it's easy to pick one color and have that be the transparent one. In a JPEG where there can be literally millions of colors, you might select a pixel and have the one right next to it not be included since it's a slightly different tone...
