[X]My Assistant

[jin880]

I have created several amazing looking transparent logos in Photoshop, however when I attempt to transfer them to Access by converting the file to GiF they lose much of their impact.
That is the procedure for transferring graphics (with shading and transparent backgrounds) from photoshop to access without losing subtlety?

[doctor9]

jin880,
I'm afraid "lose much of their impact" isn't a very good description of what's going wrong. However, I'll guess that what you're seeing is a shift in resolution. Maybe you're designing a logo at 300x300 pixels, and resizing it to 100x100 on your database form. If this is the case, here's what I'd recommend...
When I need to create a new image for a database form, I will open the form in normal view, and use the Print Screen button to take a screen shot.
Then, in Photoshop, select File->New. The default Preset should be "Clipboard", and the dimensions will be the dimensions of your current display. Select OK to create the new image, then hit Paste to paste the screenshot as a new layer.
Next, crop the file down to the area where your image will appear. THIS should be the canvas size you use when designing your logo.
Of course, you can design the image in another PSD file, at any other resolution you like, but before you save that file, copy and paste your image into this little canvas, to see how it will look when it's re-scaled. For the most accurate representation of what it'll look like, select the Zoom tool (Z), then right-click the image, and select "Actual Pixels". The image should then look just like it will in Access on your form.
Hope this helps,
Dennis

[jin880]

Great advice Dennis!
What type of file do you save the graphic image to from photoshop? I think only .png and .gif will allow transparent backgrounds.

[CyberCow]

In my experience, the image file type (with a 'transparent' aspect) that works best in Access is an *.EMF file type.
ebans has a great little "Transparent tool that will take a bmp file and render it into an EMF. The transparency value is applied to all true white pixels. (This can be changed in the code if ya dig into it.)
I have done several excellent Photoshop images for Access, set their backgrounds to white (instead of saving as a transparent GIF), then ran them through Leban's transparent tool and used the resultant EMF files. (See my Some New Icons for Access post)
There are also other similar demos and discussions in the Interface Design and Code Archive forums.
hope this helps

[doctor9]

Generally, I don't like to use transparency with bitmap-based images. If anything, I use Adobe Illustrator to create a vector image, and then save that as a Windows Metafile with transparency. A typical use of this sort of thing is a corporate logo.
The other thing I do is skip transparency completely. I use my screenshot as my background color, and paint on that. As long as you aren't using themed colors (colors that can change, based on the user/computer), you shouldn't have any problems with this strategy. Personally, I like to have a tight reign over which colors are being used on my forms. (Insert animated smiley cracking a whip here.)
Hope this helps,
Dennis

[CyberCow]

I've created a couple of tools for managing color groupings and generating coordinated color sets.
One is a simple Color Picker
Another is a bit more sophisticated, allowing generation of coordinated color groups, skewing the settings for how the color sets are generated, and saving those settings for retaining a favorite color group. Color Combination Viewer
The last one has the same functionality as the Color Combination Viewer, but with sliders and a wilder interface. Wild Color Combo Viewer
They're free to use and alter as you choose. Several other members here at UtterAccess had thir hands in some of the elements as noted in the code.
hope this helps

[jin880]

Thanks for all of the information!
I used a combination of all of the information that all of you provided me.

• I saved the image to the correct size in Photoshop as outlined by Doctor 9 above (I used Layer-Smart Object-Convert to Smart Object in order to preserve the integrity of the image when resizing.)
• I opened the Photoshop file (with transparent background) in Illustrator using the "Place" option under "File" directory.
• I then used the "Live Trace" function to vectorize the object. I think that I used the 16 color option.

* When I tried to Export to either EMF or WMF file formats from Illustrator, the background becomes white. I couldn't find an easy work-around for this.

• Then I saved from Illustrator using the "Save for Microsoft Office" option, it saved the file as a PNG file. This seemed to work perfectly and preserved the transparent background.

Attached File(s)

 ZeroG_Logo.png ( 9.98K )Number of downloads: 0

 

[jin880]

The great thing about Illustrator is that you can Vectorize the object which can really make the image look profesional and easily re-sizable.
Thanks for all of the advice!