How To Add Transparency And Reduce Opacity For An Image
When we say an image is transparent, it usually means that the white parts in the image are empty. If you were to add that image on top of another one, the image below it would be visible through the transparent areas. Image transparency isn’t just an attribute of an image’s background. It’s an attribute of the whole image. Parts of it may be completely transparent and parts of it may have reduced opacity. Here’s how you can add transparency and reduce opacity for an image.
If you’re familiar with apps like Photoshop and Gimp, or Paint.net, i.e., you know how to use them and understand how layers work, you can use any of them to add transparency to an image. If you need something simple, you can use an online app called Canva.
Reduce Opacity For An Image
Canva is a web app that helps users create images for book covers, banner ads, and profile headers, among other things.
Visit Canva and sign up for a free account. The main dashboard will give you a bunch of templates to choose from for your project but you don’t need any of them. Instead, look for and click on the Use Custom Dimensions button at the top right. In the box that opens, enter the width and height of the image you want to reduce the opacity for.
To get the width and height for an image, you can use an app like IrfanView, or you can right-click the image and select Properties from the context menu. In the Properties window, go to the Details tab to view the image’s dimensions.
Once you’ve created the new canvas, click the Uploads option in the column on the left. Select and upload the image you want to add transparency to.
Once the image has been uploaded, click the transparency button at the top right. It’s the one with a checkered box icon next to the link button. Use the slider to add transparency and make the image less opaque. Once you’re done, click the Download button. Save it as a PNG file.
The image you get will not be 100% opaque. What this means is that when you add it on top of another image, the image below it will be visible through it. This is the kind of image you need if you plan to use it as a watermark. The transparent image will be visible but any text and image in a document will still be legible.
