Choosing a Transparent or Opaque Background (Image Editor for Icons)

The latest version of this topic can be found at Choosing a Transparent or Opaque Background (Image Editor for Icons).

When you move or copy a selection from an image, any pixels in the selection that match the current background color are, by default, transparent; they do not obscure pixels in the target location.

You can switch from a transparent background (the default) to an opaque background, and back again. When you use a selection tool, the Transparent Background and Opaque Background options appear in the Option selector on the Image Editor toolbar (as seen below).

Transparent and Opaque Options on the Image Editor Toolbar

To switch between a transparent and opaque background

1. In the Image Editor toolbar, click the Option selector, and then click the appropriate background:

   • Opaque Background (O): Existing image is obscured by all parts of the selection.

   • Transparent Background (T): Existing image shows through parts of the selection that match the current background color.

- or -

• On the Image menu, select or clear Draw Opaque.

You can change the background color while a selection is already in effect to change which parts of the image are transparent.

For information on adding resources to managed projects, please see Resources in Applications in the .NET Framework Developer's Guide. For information on manually adding resource files to managed projects, accessing resources, displaying static resources, and assigning resources strings to properties, see Walkthrough: Localizing Windows Forms and Walkthrough: Using Resources for Localization with ASP.NET.

Requirements

None

See Also

Accelerator Keys
Working with Color