Easy Way to Create GIF Transparency in Photoshop

Here is a quick technique for using Adobe Photoshop to make the background of an image transparent. We'll be using the image at left. The image background or edge color does not necessarily have to be one solid color, but it should be close.

Also, to use this technique, the background color that you are removing cannot also exist within the portion of the image that is staying intact or those pixels will, by default, become transparent also. Other methods will have to be used to achieve transparency in those circumstances.

1. Open the image in Adobe Photoshop
2. Click Save For Web (and Devices)
3. Click the 2-Up tab so you just see the original and the file version you are optimizing with transparency.
4. Choose GIF and No Dither.

5. Click the Magnifier Tool and make your image fill the area available.
6. Click the Eye dropper and click on the color that you want replaced with transparency. Then click the “Maps selected colors to transparent” icon beneath the Color Table. The pixels of that color are now transparent. (Hover the cursor over the icons to identify the correct icon. In CS3 it is the left-most icon.)
7. Continue clicking a color with the Eyedropper Tool and clicking the “Maps selected colors to transparent” icon until finished.
8. Click Save, and give the GIF file a filename that is different than the original file.
9. Then close the original file without saving it.

Check out the more comprehensive "Images and Graphics" tutorials we have on our main website - especially How to Optimize Images with Adobe Photoshop. Cheers!

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