Working with transparency

Tint can make opaque colors of the image transparent, or partially transparent and it can change transparent colors opaque. To be able to do this the image needs to have an alpha channel. Alpha is just another work for transparency.

Enable transparency by selecting Add alpha channel from the Edit menu. This will make a new column a appear in the color adjustment drawer and a slider for opacity will be added to the color panel.

Making an opaque color transparent

1. Click on a color in the image to get a new color adjustment.
2. Click on the color in the adjusted to activate the color panel for the adjustment.
3. Drag the opacity slider in the color panel to the left. You'll see the background shine through the image in all parts where the color value is closed to the original color.

Making a transparent color opaque

1. Click on a transparent point in the image to get a new color adjustment.
2. Click on the color in the adjusted to activate the color panel for the adjustment.
3. Drag the opacity slider in the color panel to the right. 4. Optionally, turn off the switches for hue, saturation and brightness to make the transparency change apply to all points with transparency close to the clicked point, regardless of their color setting. This is because even transparent colors have color values. See the link at the bottom of this page for help about hue, saturation and brightness.

Changing the background color

You can change the background that shines through the transparent parts of the image to make the transparency easier to see.

1. Add a background color setting to the toolbar by clicking Customize, or by selecting "Customize Toolbar" from the toolbar context menu. Then drag the background color well to the toolbar and close the customization sheet.
2. Make sure you don't have a color adjustment selected in the drawer by clicking below the list of color adjustments.
3. Click the frame of the bg color well frame and select a new color in the color panel.

Removing all transparency

You can make the image completely opaque by choosing a color space without alpha from the Edit menu.

Tell me more

Search Mac Help for help about colors
Working with hue, saturation and brightness