How to Make a Transparent Background with MS Paint and GIMP

[DaltonR6]

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to make a transparent background with MS Paint and GIMP. If you dont have GIMP, download it here (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/), its free.

First, you need to find the picture your using. Im using another Koopa, because its easy. Your going to want to use the Square tool, and start in the top left corner, and drag it to the bottom right. Now dont let go. Look at the bottom of paint. It should have a numberXnumber. Thats how many pixels wide it is. Remember that number.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu53/daltonr6/Gimp1.png
This one is 53 Pixels wide, and 65 Pixels in length. Now, copy the inside of the square. Open up GIMP, click on File, then New. Where it says "Wide" and "Length", put in the numbers, (in this case, 53x65) Then click on Advanced Options. Then go to Fill With, and click on the drop out menu. Click on Transparency. Then hit OK.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu53/daltonr6/GIMP2.png
Now paste your picture into it. To do that, Right Click, then Edit, then paste. Now, if the picture doesnt fit, and its to big, go to File, New, and do the same thing but with a little bit more pixels.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu53/daltonr6/Gimp3.png
Now zoom in a bunch. (Magnifying glass) Click on the Eraser. Then below that in the options, click Hard Edge. Then where it says Scale, make it 0.44. That makes the brush a square.http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu53/daltonr6/Gimp4.png
Start erasing the white/Background around your picture.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu53/daltonr6/Gimp5.png
You'll find that some pixels are too small to get, just leave those. When your done, make the brush about 0.04. That makes a small square. Erase the rest of the white.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu53/daltonr6/Gimp6.png
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu53/daltonr6/Gimp7.png
When your done, click File and Save As. Find the folder you want to save it to. Then at the top, type in the name. Then, at the end put .png. Now go to where it says All images, click the Drop Menu and click PNG.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu53/daltonr6/Gimp8.png
Then on the Pop Up, Click export, then save. and your done!

Please leave, comments,questions etc. below. Thanks!

[Vincent]

Which is why I enjoy Photoshop. It's much easier just hiding the background layer, and deleting all the white. I'm sure someone will find use of this tutorial though.

[Dabombster]

To make your life easier...

In case you didn't know, when you use the select tool in MS Paint, there's an option to not have any white showing. Meaning that tutorial could have been done in three steps. Selecting it, moving it to GIMP, and saving it.

Hope that helped you save a little time ;)

[DaltonR6]

To make your life easier...

In case you didn't know, when you use the select tool in MS Paint, there's an option to not have any white showing. Meaning that tutorial could have been done in three steps. Selecting it, moving it to GIMP, and saving it.

Hope that helped you save a little time ;)

oh. uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,What option? Where is it? :huh:

[Steve]

To make your life easier...

In case you didn't know, when you use the select tool in MS Paint, there's an option to not have any white showing. Meaning that tutorial could have been done in three steps. Selecting it, moving it to GIMP, and saving it.

Hope that helped you save a little time ;)

While that does work in this particular case, if you're doing this for an image that has white in it, that will also be removed.

To answer your question Dalton, go to "Colors > Color to Alpha". White should be selected at default.

[DaltonR6]

While that does work in this particular case, if you're doing this for an image that has white in it, that will also be removed.

To answer your question Dalton, go to "Colors > Color to Alpha". White should be selected at default.
wow. Thats way easier! hahahahaha. :) I will do that for now on.