Grayscale to Transparency transformation ?

[Tokumeino]

Hi, I want to create a variety of transparency masks but a variety of them, with various sorts of dithering such as in the following sample.

I only could perform the dithering thing by starting from a white to black gradient. I have multiple layers in a file (mostly smart objects to keep as non desgructive as possible), each with a different kind of dithering, but they are all white to black.

I want transparent to black instead. If you download the above picture (produced by Gimp: menu Colors > Colors to Alpha) instead of just viewing if in the browser, yo should see what I mean).  Points of attention :

• not only white to transparent but grey tones transformed to transparency levels
• greys should not remain grey yet transparent, but black with transparency
• my layers are currently smart objects

How can I do ? (I have found tutorials ht I could not replicate or it was only about pure white to full transparency).

[Myra Ferguson]

You can convert your image from white to black to transparency to black by doing the following:

1. Open your image in Photoshop
2. Flatten it by going to the Layers panel menu (the hamburger menu in the upper right of the Layers panel)
3. Add a layer mask by either clicking on the 3rd icon from the left at the bottom of the Layers panel or by going to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All.
4. Click on the gradient thumbnail in the Layers panel.
5. Select All - Control (Windows) / Command (macOS) + A to select all of the gradient and copy it.
6. Alt (Windows) / Option (macOS) + click on the layer mask thumbnail to show it instead of the gradient.
7. Paste the gradient into the layer mask.
8. Invert the layer mask using Control (Windows) / Command (macOS) + I or by going to Image > Adjustments > Invert.

[Stephen Marsh]

@Tokumeino – It's possible to recreate the color to alpha function in Photoshop for black or white backgrounds using a complex action:

I created an English language compatible action version from the original Japanese language version here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/photoshop-needs-quot-color-to-alpha-q...

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lqc7pf6amwb509iqi9pho/UnMultiply_2021_EN.atn?rlkey=fwiyntcxv02wcyh8hs...

[Glenn 8675309]

My explanations are generally pretty simple and easy, I'm a lazy designer- no reason for the most part for actions  / adjustment layers / layer masks.   I also tend to ignore the info in the layers panel.