How to turn an image into transparent with GIMP

Transparent effects may not be interesting until you discover how using them will make your image interesting. Install the free GIMP image editor and you can learn how to turn the blue sky into red and make a normal apple become special in blue just by clicking on a button. Many digital images contain information that determines the transparency and color of the image. By using GIMP to manipulate transparency information, you can make a color in an image transparent and replace it with a different color.

Create transparent color

1. Launch GIMP and open a color image that you want to make transparent.

2. Click "Color" from the menu bar and select " Color to Alpha ". The Color to Alpha dialog box opens and shows a small preview of the image. The Color to Alpha feature allows you to select a color in your image and make it transparent. This window has a "From" box below the preview image. This text box contains a color you want to make transparent. There are several ways to put a color in that text box.

How to turn an image into transparent with GIMP Picture 1

3. Right-click on the 'From' box and you will see a menu containing the following options: Foreground Color, Background Color, Black and White . You can click on one of these options if you want to make one of those colors transparent. The background and foreground colors are the colors you see at the end of the Toolbox window .

How to turn an image into transparent with GIMP Picture 2

4. Click the "From" text box and GIMP open the Color to Alpha Color Picker window. This window displays colors and allows you to click on the color you want to make transparent.

How to turn an image into transparent with GIMP Picture 3

5. Choose the color you want to make transparent with one of these methods. For example, if you want to select a color from the Color to Helpful Color Picker window, click the "From" text box and click one of the colors in the Color to Helpful Color Picker dialog box and click "OK". GIMP will make the selected color transparent.

Check transparency

1. Click the "Layer" button at the top of GIMP's main window and select "New Layer" to open the New Layer window . Click "OK" to create a new layer. GIMP places new layers on your original image.

2. Press " Ctrl + L " to open the Layers window if you don't see it. The Layers window contains a list of vertical layers that exist in your image. Each layer appears as a thumbnail. The new layer you added appears at the top of the list. Your original image, also a layer, appears below that new layer. Layers are like glass panels that contain images. If you overlap them, the layers near the bottom of the list will only be able to see through any transparent areas of the layers above them.

3. Click and drag the new layer that you created so that it is below your original image layer. This changes the placement order and makes the new layer appear below your original image layer.

4. Click on the new layer to select it. Scroll to the Toolbox window and click the "Foreground" square color at the bottom of the window to open the Change Foreground Color window. Click one of the colors you see in the Change Foreground Color dialog window and then click "OK" to close that window.

5. Click on the "Bucket Fill" tool in the Toolbox window and move to the canvas containing the new layer. Click on the layer to color it with the color you have chosen. For example, if you selected green, GIMP will fill the new layer with green. Note that the color you selected is viewed through the transparent areas of the original image. This happens because you made those areas transparent. Since your original image is on a layer with its own color, you'll see the new layer's color through the transparent areas in your original image.

Advice

The Color to Alpha dialog box allows you to select a color or one of the options in the drop-down menu, such as the Foreground Color and Background color. However, you may want to choose a more accurate color. Do this by clicking on the "Color Picker" tool in the Toolbox window and then clicking on a color in the image you want to make transparent. When you do this, you'll set the foreground color to the color you selected. You can then right-click on the "From" text box in the Color to Alpha window and select "Foreground Color". When you click "OK", GIMP makes that color transparent.

If you don't see the Toolbox window , press 'Windows' and then click 'New Toolbox'.

Good luck!

See more:

1. Let your photos 'shine' with GIMP's background change feature
2. A full guide to editing photos in GIMP
3. How to use Paintbrush in GIMP