Text with transparent background

[AlfK]

Hi everyone,

This may sound odd but here goes......

 

I am trying to create text from within Affinity photo app somehow that I can simply copy and then paste into another apps image editor so that it will only paste the text with transparent background. This is what I have tried so far in Affinity photo:

 - In affinity photo v 1.6.5, created a new transparent pixel image into which I add artistic text required for the other app's built-in image editor.

- Use the Copy command from Affinity's main Menu.

- go to the other apps image editor, and note that the Paste symbol is now active, so click on it.

- result is I have the Affinity's text displayed but it has white background and not the transparent background from Affinity's pixel image.

I stress I am new to the graphics world but I am very familiar with computers and Windows Copy/Paste feature

Edited May 27, 2019 by AlfK

[v_kyr]

Does the other app support transparency or have place a white background as default? You can try what happens when you export as SVG or PNG with transparency and then import into the other app, as far as that supports those formats.

[AlfK]

Thanks for the response, however cannot use other app as you suggest (which is not a graphic app as such and is only a simple pixel editor that I use within a train control app called Railroad and Co for control of my model railway).So this is why I am trying to use windows copy/paste to 'bring in' the text I want to use with the other's app's simple pixel editor, and canot open a file from within this editor unfortunately.

[John Rostron]

Try this:

Rasterize your image (text),

1. Use the Flood select tool to select all the non-text areas, (make sure that  'contiguous' is not selected,
2. Invert the pixel selection (Select > Invert Pixel Selection),
3. You should now have just your text selected. Now copy this (Ctrl-C)
4. Paste into your other editor.

John

[AlfK]

Yes, other image editor starts with a transparent blank image with which to add coloured pixels, or paste other 'clipboard copied' image onto the transparent blank image, but when I paste Affinity's text it has a white background and I would have to edit out and replace the white pixels with transparent ones within the simple image editor..........which I could do, but as I want to have about a dozen or so words of text on several different images, would take a while and I thought I could use affinity to save time?

[AlfK]

Okay John, replies are coming in thick and fast as I am typing replies to everyone, will try what you say 

[AlfK]

John,

Managed to follow what you suggest and Affinity shows a dotted line around just the text and after copying via Ctrl-C and going to my railway app's image editor and pasting it still has a white  background?

 

Snipping tool capture of what I am saying attached.

[HVDB Photography]

CTRL click the thumbnail of the artistic text layer to make a selection
CTRl +C to copy the clipboard
In GIMP 2.10, CTRL+V to paste = text with transparency !!
 

[John Rostron]

2 hours ago, AlfK said:

Managed to follow what you suggest and Affinity shows a dotted line around just the text and after copying via Ctrl-C and going to my railway app's image editor and pasting it still has a white  background?

The fact that Affinity shows a dotted line around your text (marching ants) implies that just the text has been selected. It would seem that it is your target program that is filling in the white background.

John 

[AlfK]

Yes I think you are correct and it is how my app sees the pasted text!!

Tried your way of using GIMP to paste the text from Affinity into, and it shows light & dark grey squares behind the text (not white box) which I think means transparency?

Unfortunately I have to use my app's image editor to do what I am trying to do, so end of topic it seems? 

Thanks everyone for the great help 

[gdenby]

I couldn't find any docs on the "TrainController" image editing module. My guess is that it can deal w. transparent .gif files. Affinity will export .gif, but not w. transparency. Perhaps export as .png w. transparency from affinity, then open in GIMP, and export as .gif, and then copy into the "TrainController."

[AlfK]

Thanks everyone for the additional ideas, both sound feasible  Give me a day or so to experiment a bit more, and will feed back my results asap. 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, gdenby said:

Affinity will export .gif, but not w. transparency.

Are you sure about that? From the few quick (but far from comprehensive) tests I tried, as long as More > Matte is set to no color (the white box with the red slash through it) & the document includes some less than 100% opaque areas, in the exported gif those areas effectively are transparent. However, there is no partial transparency, so even an area that is 99% opaque is exported as 100% transparent, limiting the usefulness of the export.

[v_kyr]

According to this ...

Quote

DE TrainController™Bronzesetzt voraus, dass die Bilddaten in einem bestimmten Format gespeichert sind und auf ein bestimmtes Maß skaliert worden sind. Die Bilder müssen zu den Verhältnissen der Bildschirmanzeige von TrainController™Bronze passen. Außerdem sollen die Bilder verschiedener Loks und Züge maßstäblich zueinander passen, unabhängig davon, woher sie ursprünglich stammen. TrainAnimator™sorgt dafür, dass die Bilder entsprechend vorbereitet werden.TrainAnimator™kann verschiedene Bildformate verarbeiten, u.a. Bitmap, JPEG oder GIF. Das Programm kann außerdem auch auf Bilder zugreifen, die in Programmdateien (.EXE und .DLL) oder Bildschirmschonern (.SCR) gespeichert sind. TrainAnimator™wandelt die unter-schiedlichen Bildformate und –Maßstäbe in ein einheitliches und maßstäblich angepass-tes Format um, das von TrainController™Bronzedirekt verwendet werden kann.

EN TrainController ™ Bronze requires the image data to be stored in a specific format and scaled to a specific size. The images must match the proportions of the screen display of TrainController ™ bronze pens. In addition, the images of different locomotives and trains to scale to match, regardless of where they originally come from. TrainAnimator ™ ensures that the images are prepared accordingly. TrainAnimator ™ can process various image formats, i.a. Bitmap, JPEG or GIF. The program can also access images stored in program files (.EXE and .DLL) or screensavers (.SCR). TrainAnimator ™ transforms the various image formats and scales into a consistent and scaled-up format that TrainController ™ Bronzedirect can use.

 

... the software uses JPG/GIF. - See also ...

• https://www.1zu160.net/digital/digital-railroad2.php

Quote

...Passende Icons zu den Lokomotiven und Zügen können mit dem kostenlosen Programm Railroad & Co. TrainAnimator erstellt werden. Über dieses Programm können alle gängigen Bildformate in geeignete und größenrichtig zueinander passende Icons gebracht werden.
Sofern man von seinen Modellen auch Bilder mit einfarbigen Hintergrund hat, kann diese Hintergrundfarbe transparent gestellt werden, sodass nur noch die Lokomotive selbst sichtbar ist....

EN Matching icons to the locomotives and trains can be created with the free program Railroad & Co. TrainAnimator. Using this program, all popular image formats can be brought into suitable icons that match each other in the right size.
If one of his models also pictures with a monochrome background, this background color can be made transparent, so that only the locomotive itself is visible.

 

[gdenby]

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

Are you sure about that? From the few quick (but far from comprehensive) tests I tried, as long as More > Matte is set to no color (the white box with the red slash through it) & the document includes some less than 100% opaque areas, in the exported gif those areas effectively are transparent. However, there is no partial transparency, so even an area that is 99% opaque is exported as 100% transparent, limiting the usefulness of the export.

I'm missing something somewhere. When I go to export, and look at the gif export options, I only get a color choice for matte. .png defaults to a box w. a red slash.

[walt.farrell]

21 minutes ago, gdenby said:

I'm missing something somewhere. When I go to export, and look at the gif export options, I only get a color choice for matte. .png defaults to a box w. a red slash.

I just tried it and my Matte color for exporting a .gif came up as white with a red slash (i.e., no color). Clicking on it gives a color wheel with the usual choices, as well as a "no color" icon above the wheel.

[R C-R]

42 minutes ago, gdenby said:

I'm missing something somewhere. When I go to export, and look at the gif export options, I only get a color choice for matte. .png defaults to a box w. a red slash.

In the "More" panel for gif exports:

[gdenby]

The problem was associated w. exporting in grey scale. If working in RGB, the matte no fill box is the default. Not available in greyscale.

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, gdenby said:

The problem was associated w. exporting in grey scale. If working in RGB, the matte no fill box is the default. Not available in greyscale.

I see what you mean: if one opts for the "GIF Greyscale" preset, regardless of how the document "Pixel Format" & "ICC profile" options are set, after clicking on the Matte fill box, the small fill choice next to the eyedropper does not offer the "no color" choice.

I think that qualifies as a bug & you should report it.

[gdenby]

In the morning...

[AlfK]

To V-KYR

As you have tried to investigate a bit more into images within Train controller (TC).....thank you for that, I will explain more as to what I am trying to use the built in image editor of TC:

It is not for images of my locos, for which I am fully conversant at importing Gif, Bmp Jpg files into, but trying to create bespoke button images for my switchboard graphic that actually controls the layout visually, which you will not (I think) be able to look into unless you are a TC user?

 

As to all the other replies........ I'm afraid content is all beyond my level of graphics know-how!!?? but feel free to carry on, some of it may 'stick'

[AlfK]

On 5/27/2019 at 6:33 PM, BofG said:

Can you do the compositing in Affinity and then just paste the completed image into your train program? As in put the image you want the text to sit on into Affinity, add your text then just paste that whole image back into the train app.

Thanks everyone managed to do what I wanted by using BofG's suggestion........