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Colouring the Background of a Current Image


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This tutorial is assuming you have an image you created (or are allowed to alter) and you want to change the background colour to either match your website background or eventually turn it into a transparent gif. Unfortunately, if there is a drop shadow (to give 3D effect) you will have to colour over it and lose that effect. The good news is if you were creating your own graphics using the tutorial on this site you could easily add that drop shadow 3-D effect. See a this page for more explanation.

but, for now, you have an image that the background just doesnt fit the background on your site and you want to either colour it the same as your background or prepare it so you can turn it into a Transparent GIF.

  • Open up PSP 7
  • open the image to alter
  • If it is a GIF image you will need to increase the colours. Go to Colours/Increase Colour Depth/16 million Colour Depth (or just go SHIFT-CTRL-0 (zero)).



  • Notice the colour chart on the right of the board go from 256 colour pixels to 16 million colours



    • 256 Colours
    16 Million Colours

  • Click on the image and then press the + key about 8 or 9 times to get it a decent enough size to work on
  • Click on the brush icon

    • Right click on the brush icon to bring up a menu and select Tool Options
    Make it look like mine. Most import is to bring the size down to 1 and to make it square

    Click on the Styles to bring up a colour chart. Now this is where you can do a couple things...
    1) Colour the background green (or some other weird colour) to turn the image into a transparent gif later on
    2) select the colour of your background on your website. If you know the colour codes you can just input them here also
  • Take your paintbrush and paint the entire white background green (or whatever colour you choose) by clicking on the white background and, while holding down the left mouse button, drag it around. Let go of the button once in a while and then reclick and continue on so that your work is done in sections. This way if you accidently make a mistake you just simply hit the CTRL-Z key which will undo the last "patch" of work. Hit CTRL-Z as many times as you want to keep going back to erase the work you have done.
  • When you think you are done hit the minus key to bring the image back to the original size. Look at it and see if you are happy with it. Sometimes you can see a pixel or two you missed so just hit the + key a few times and touch up your image.
  • Save your work as a GIF (File, Save As, select GIF) if you are going to make it a transparency and a JPG if you are not going to make it transparent. Close the image and then reopen it to see the finished product. If it is a GIF then notice the colour chart on your right has reverted back to the 256 colour pixel chart. Also notice in the colour chart the one green pixel stand out? That will help with making your transparent gif work better.
  • If you are now going to make this new gif transparent, move on to the "Creating Transparent Gifs".


    • Creating a Transparent Gif