An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

Help and techniques for creating Air Manager Instrument Graphics

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wohnlich
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An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#1 Post by wohnlich »

With @JackZ 's great tutorial, we've been masking transparent parts in instruments using Skinman since ages, but it's not exactly an easy tool to use, and requires a download and install of a very old abadonware product. Luckily, there's an alternative:

https://onlinepngtools.com/create-transparent-png

With this online tool, you upload a PNG and tell the program to replace any color you click on with a transparent background.
I needed a transparent "window" in my Bücker Jungmann altimeter (where the millibars are displayed). I drew it in a hard-to-miss green color, uploaded it and just clicked the green area. Works like a charm!

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Sling
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Re: An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#2 Post by Sling »

You can add alpha in most good graphics programs so there is no need to use an online tool for this.

wohnlich
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Re: An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#3 Post by wohnlich »

Inkscape doesn't offer that option. I wonder why there's a dedicated Skinman tutorial on this site if it's such a nobrainer function that can be found anywhere.

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Crunchmeister
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Re: An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#4 Post by Crunchmeister »

wohnlich wrote: Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:09 pm Inkscape doesn't offer that option.
You might want to look here:
https://roy-torley.github.io/Inkscape_T ... ial08.html
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SimPassion
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Re: An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#5 Post by SimPassion »

One of the most easiest and free tool is PaintDotNet (Paint.Net), for transparency management and plenty of easy standard and advanced features around bitmaps manipulation, on windows though

https://www.dotpdn.com/downloads/pdn.html
https://www.getpaint.net/

wohnlich
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Re: An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#6 Post by wohnlich »

Crunchmeister wrote: Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:19 pm You might want to look here:
https://roy-torley.github.io/Inkscape_T ... ial08.html
Thanks for the link! I'm familiar with opacity in Inkscape but you can't "draw transparency" over an existing complex object. In my case, I had to cut out a Kollsman window (behind which a Millibar disk can be seen) out of the main instrument scale card. Yes you can draw the window onto the card and then use "Path->Difference" to cut it out, but that doesn't work if you have more than one object stacked over another. In my case, I have a complex illustation consisting of overlaying objects, and I would need to "punch out" the window from the whole stack. Also, after you do that it's a path and not easily editable anymore, and what's more, when I tried the function it was buggy in Inkscape. It only worked sometimes, and sometimes it didn't.

I ended up downloading Skinman just for the purpose of punching the window out of the finished instrument as a last step.

wohnlich
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Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:11 pm

Re: An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#7 Post by wohnlich »

SimPassion wrote: Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:27 pm One of the most easiest and free tool is PaintDotNet (Paint.Net), for transparency management and plenty of easy standard and advanced features around bitmaps manipulation, on windows though

https://www.dotpdn.com/downloads/pdn.html
https://www.getpaint.net/
Thanks for the hint! Actually I have been using it earlier, but never thought about it when I tried to make parts of the instruments transparent.

If deleting a part of the picture is the only thing you need to do, uploading it to a website still is the quickest way to do it - nothing to download and install, etc.

Thanks again though!

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Crunchmeister
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Re: An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#8 Post by Crunchmeister »

Hopefully you find something that works for you.

Personally, I use Photoshop, so making transparencies is about as easy as it gets.
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Sling
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Re: An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#9 Post by Sling »

Not being funny but if Inkscape can’t do this basic thing it’s not the tool to be using for AM dev. Photoshop, Corel Draw or GiMP are some others.

wohnlich
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Re: An easier way to make parts of the image transparent

#10 Post by wohnlich »

Sling wrote: Thu Dec 01, 2022 11:35 pm Not being funny but if Inkscape can’t do this basic thing it’s not the tool to be using for AM dev. Photoshop, Corel Draw or GiMP are some others.
And it would be so easy to solve, they just would have to allow to fill an object with "Transparent" like any other color. As I wrote some posts above this, the basic functionality is there, but I haven't found a way to apply it to stack of objects - it only works with one object. Maybe I just don't get it, but I looked at a lot of tutorials. I believe you could convert the "stack" of objects into one path and then punch out a transparent shape from the whole thing, but then they lose their features as an object and become a path (just a bunch of lines). Inkscape has a "declarative" approach to drawing: Objects never become bitmaps, they remain a circle or a line and you can modify them as these objects (a bit like in Powerpoint, but much more powerful).

Apart from this odd problem, I find it to be a very productive tool due to this philosophy. My first instrument took me ages to make, but in the meantime I can pump out a basic instrument scale in 15 minutes.

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