Transparrent Color in Bitmap
TouchToBegin
Posts: 15
I am working in TPD4 for the first time, and I am trying to use some button graphics from my library that I have used in TPD3. I am using the R 255 G 0 B 255 as a background color and I want that color to appear as transparent. Is this achievable in TPD4? I'll be shocked if it isn't. TP is a NXT-CV7.
Thanks,
Joe
Thanks,
Joe
0
Comments
Yes, I thought that too. The RGB color that I want to be transparent, is in the bitmap itself. I have that pink color in the corners of the rectangular bitmap and they need to be transparent on the touch panel. When I select Edit Palettes from the Panel menu, I set that RGB color to zero opacity. It has no effect on my bitmaps.
In TPDesign4, you are working with "real" transparency, mostly used with png format. You can not define a color within an image for "use as transparent" within TPD4. If you want to have a specific color as transparency, this must be done with a external graphics tool. The only freeware tool I can remember quickly is "Gimp".
The color settings within TPD4 have only effect to border/font/background colors but not to the images itself.
Replaced the background of the bmp with a transparent back ground.
Select every pixel that has a color of R255 G0 B255 and delete it.
Save image as a PNG
This worked great. I hit another bump after that though and maybe there is a way to do this that you can tell me...
I had already used the original bitmaps in the project because I didn't want to stop working...so after I updated the images to PNG, I had to 'replace image' some how. I could not figure out a way to do this in resource manager. Is there a way?
Absolutely. When you go into the Resource Manager and choose to Import images, you should see a checkbox at the bottom of the Open dialog that reads: 'Overwrite resources with duplicate names'. With this unchecked, subsequent imports of the same image will be automatically renamed 'Copy of ...' or 'Copy (n) of ...'. With it checked, it will do what it says and replace any resource with the same name as the one you are importing.
I would be interested to know if such a procedure exists too. I've always (1) imported my new pics, (2) deleted the old ones, (3) gone through the entire stinkin' panel and re-assign images where needed. Part of the problem is the whole "Copy of" thing; if you import an image with the same name as an existing one, it makes a copy with a new name instead of replacing the old. Now, you can turn that off, but I never tried it, and wonder if it will replace the old, or just skip it if the name already exists. I extensively cut-and-paste pages from one panel file to another, and sometimes wind up with 2-3 "Copy of" images in the target file, and most of the time, it's not worth it to go through the thing and take them out (especially if it's something like a transport button graphic and there are multiple instances of them). Even TPD3 handled this badly - it would never replace,just make the "Copy of" thing or nothing. Either way, you had to go through the entire project manually to get rid of redundant images.
This did not seem to work when the file extensions were different.
The images went from .jpg to .png in resource manager and the overwrite did not take place.
In order for the replace to work, it needs to import as the same format as the image already existing in the ResourceManager without having to perform a conversion. So, if you import myImage.bmp and it is converted to myImage.jpg, subsueqent imports will always become 'Copy of' regardless of the replace setting because the original is NOT the same filename as an existing resource. But importing myImage.jpg, making changes to it, and re-importing with the replace option checked will, in fact, replace the original resource.
Sorry, bad communication on my part. They didn't change format, the PNGs were added to the resource list while the JPGs remained in place. So would renaming my PNGs to the JPG extensions in fact overwrite the image and retain its PNG format?
Anybody have an idea why the open dialog that comes up when I select import from the resource manager doesn't have the 'overwrite' existing images checkbox described above?
It's quite anoying to make a small change to an image and not be able to update it by reimporting to TPDesign.
Really strange and really anoying. I'm trying to get ahold of the guy who set up the network and the computers to see if he potentially did anything. But I don't think it's a permissions issue. I have tried from my own account and our office 'root' account with full access.