Freeway Pro can import Photoshop images with transparency. To set up an
image in Photoshop that has transparency, you will need to work using
layers and hide or delete the Background layer. Any transparency in
Photoshop will be indicated by a checker-board pattern.
When
working with transparency in Photoshop, it is a good idea to maintain
an opaque layer set to the colour of your web page. This way you will
see how the transparancy will behave on the page. The background layer
can be used for that. Just don't forget to hide it when you save the
image and import it into Freeway.
When the image is imported
into Freeway, it will be composited with any other image on the page,
using the transparency in the file. The resulting published image will
be either a JPEG or a GIF. The JPEG format does not support a
transparency mask, and so Freeway will also include any background
texture in the final image.
The GIF format supports 1-bit
transparency. This means that you can either have 100% transparancy or
no transparency - there are no intermediate states. In this case,
Freeway will guess how the transparancy should be based on the opacity
of your image. The results may, or may not, be favorable, depending on
your image.
If you want true transparency, then you need to tell
Freeway to output the image as a PNG file and set the Colors option of the PNG to Millions. You can do all of this in the Item Ouput Settings pane of the Inspector. Be aware that PNG files can be much
bigger than their JPEG equivalents, so use this format with care.
Note: Freeway Express can not import Photoshop files. However, it can
import PNGs, so Express users should use the Save for Web feature in
Photoshop and select PNG-24 as the format to save in.
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