Transparent Icons

[SteveB]

Has anybody tried to create transparent icons in version 8 the way you could in 6 and earlier...rotate 90 deg, cut, paste special, rotate 270, etc? It doesn't seem to work for me anymore. The size of the pasted icon changes, and I can't remove the background.

Steve

[Lee Smith]

You don't have to do this in v8 (and v7 I think) now.

I just watch the video at filemakermagazine by Matt Petrowsky which has a quick overview on how to do this, Unfortunately, it is at the end of a very long video that shows the benefits of his Theme_Library.fp7

The worst part of it was trying to get it to finish downloading. I wrote Matt a note about it, but I don't think he has done anything as yet. If you have problems, or if it zips right on in, I would like to know.

BTW, I had to slow, pause through it to get all of the steps involved, but I was able to create what was described.

HTH

Lee

[SteveB]

Hi Lee. I couldn't download any of his videos...I tried multiple times. All I get is a revolving Quicktime Icon which seems to be in a loop. I using XP with a cable modem which at most should be minutes to download.

Steve

[SlimJim]

The Quicktime icon may be indicating that a Quicktime browser add-in is doing the downloading. If you don't already do this can I suggest that you right-click the link and choose save target as. The ThemeListLayout movie is 59.1Mb and I have just downloaded it in 4min 22 sec on a (nominally) 2Mb broadband connection.

[Lee Smith]

I know. I had to keep reloading it until I finally got it.

I used his steps for doing a gradient, and it worked well.

Anyway, I think you just need to, in PhotoShop, make sure hid the Background layer (I just put it on a transparent background), and then you "Save For Web", and click the Options, Use the Png 24, format and Transparent.

HTH

Lee

[Lee Smith]

Hi Jim,

I forgot to mention that that was also required. However, it did not take that short of time, and it kept stalling, causing me to have to reload it.

[Ender]

Check this thread for a demo and explanation for making transparent graphics in FM7 (and FM8 too.)

http://www.maclane.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=50&Number=497494

[SteveB]

I have Photoshop 6, and I was able to just erase the background with the background eraser tool, so the extra step of creating another layer doesn't seem to be needed.

However, for the users that don't have Photoshop or similar, here's another very cheap and easy approach. I use 'ArtIcons' from Aha-soft to create icons in virually any size and resolution. It will save the icon as a PNG file, which is what Filemaker requires. You can download a copy at Link . The other icon editors that are out can probably do the same thing.

Steve

[Lee Smith]

System requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT/XP/2003

[Ender]

Here's a local copy of my demo files.

Colors.fp7.zip

Colors_Global.fp7.zip