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tlee4me
tlee4me
Participant
February 2, 2017
Answered

Select and mask not resulting in transparent background

  • February 2, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 4270 views

Hi there,

I have been successfully selecting and masking for years now, however, today I'm stumped on something that I know is easy. I'm sure this has a very simple solution but, the answer is eluding me... I have a black box on a white background that I need removed off of the white background. I make a selection yet when I mask it the transparent checkerboard is not being revealed, it stays white. When I try to inverse it the box disappears but, instead of the transparent checkerboard I'm left with a pure white layer. What am I doing wrong?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer tlee4me

Well, I figured it out. SHM... The problem was my screen! I took screen shots and when I opened those on my laptop screen instead of my secondary screen I could see the transparent background. Wow, time to get a new screen. Sorry about this crazy plea for help

3 replies

tlee4me
tlee4meAuthorCorrect answer
Participant
February 3, 2017

Well, I figured it out. SHM... The problem was my screen! I took screen shots and when I opened those on my laptop screen instead of my secondary screen I could see the transparent background. Wow, time to get a new screen. Sorry about this crazy plea for help

S_Gans
Community Expert
S_GansCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 3, 2017

LOL! I hadn't thought of that! One thing that may save you a few bucks may be to lower the brightness of the secondary screen...

Worth a shot, unless you, like me, love buying technology!

Adobe Community Expert / Adobe Certified Instructor
tlee4me
tlee4meAuthor
Participant
February 3, 2017

Hi again,

It is the strangest thing. If I copy the masked image and paste it in a new file the transparency is honored, but if I save as a PNG or PSD the transparency is not honored and its white. I've tried doing it on the background layer, layer 0, new layer... I'll take screen shots for you

T

S_Gans
Community Expert
S_GansCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 3, 2017

I think you may have just changed a simple preference for visibility of the transparency grid. Please go to Preferences>Transparency and Gamut. The view of the checkerboard on the grid is based on the settings in that area. Either, the Grid size is set to "None", in which case, change it to something you like. OR, the color boxes under "Grid Colors" are both white, for which you can change either color to get the checkerboard back. There are also some color presets in there.

Adobe Community Expert / Adobe Certified Instructor
tlee4me
tlee4meAuthor
Participant
February 3, 2017

good morning,

Thank you for taking the time to help me out! I just looked and what you suggested was not the problem, my settings are as they are in the screenshot you provided.

tlee4me
tlee4meAuthor
Participant
February 3, 2017

I tried the eraser tool and even that will not reveal the transparent background, but it will erase the black box.

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