As of recent, in my new position I was putting a presentation together and had to create a logo with a transparent background. I thought I knew how to do this in photoshop but try after try it was not working correctly. I ended up consulting one of my old colleagues and the answer was easier than I thought. I’m not sure if any of you may need to do this at any point but here is how you can put any logo on a transparent background.

Ok. The first step is to bring whichever logo you’re working with into Photoshop. For the sake of this demo I’ll use my own logo.

You’ll notice that the layer is locked noted by the lock sign in your layer palate.

When you double click the layer it will ask to confirm the name of the layer. You can rename it if you like. Note: If you’re not working in RGB mode you’ll have to convert it into RGB mode by clicking “image” on the top of your screen, selecting “mode” and choosing RGB. If you’re layer began locked as mentioned above, this will be the only way to unlock it.

Using the magic wand tool, select the current background of your image. In my case it is the light blue area.

You’ll see the marching ants around your selection. At this point you can hit the delete button. The background should vanish. If you have little areas (in between letters like I do) you’ll have to repeat the process.

Ok, we’re almost done. Now, you need to save out into a format that will allow for a transparent background. What does this mean? Well, JPEG’s do not allow for you to save and maintain a transparent background. GIF files are the only file format that will allow you to do so unless you’re using Adobe Illustrator.

Ok, click file and save for web & devices as show below:

Now you must select GIF as your file format and be sure to check the “transparency” box.

Once you do that you’re all set! Just choose the destination in which you would like to save the file and you’re good to go! You have yourself a transparent background! Here is my transparent logo! You’ll notice since the antennas of the TV are white you can see them.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 1:05 am and is filed under How-To, Workflow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.