Creating proper transparent Aero Compatible PNGs

Okay this is the first tutorial in the set in helping you make a start on making a theme for Vista.
I originally posted this on JoeJoe.org a while ago.

Okay first what I mean by compatible PNGs is this:

See how there is white around the image, this is because of how programs like Photoshop save PNG files. So we need to make it so it looks like this:

See no more white!

Okay to do this you need to have your image, I'm going to use the startbutton as the example because this was the one that was giving me trouble in the beginning.

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Lets Start!

Okay so make your image in Photoshop like so:

Remember it must have a transparent background

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Now download the program called "Alpha Icon Converter"

http://www.sendspace.com/file/e4am97

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And run it you'll see the program come up, make it so that it looks like this:

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And drag your .PNG file onto the program and you'll get a .BMP file with the same name back


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Now open both these files in Photoshop, and drag the .PNG layer onto the .BMP layer like so:

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Now position the new layer exactly over the top of the "Background" layer in the image:

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Now select the "Background" and use a paint brush to completely paint it black, the whole thing, make sure you don't miss any spots!

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Now save that file as a .BMP file with these settings:


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Now drag that new .BMP file onto "Alpha Icon Converter" with these settings:

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And wala! the new .PNG that has been created is the one you use to replace the resource in your msstyles file or whatever file you are modding. This technique can be used on any image that has that problem, not all images have this problem but a few of them do.

Happy modding! :)