Help with an 'icon'

ajf · 11 Mar 2013 at 22:28

Can someone help me out here?
I want to use this small image as an icon:

I want the white area to be transparent and then the actual symbols white.
How do I do this?
I only have a jpeg image. I can use Photoshop but not sure where to start as not something I do much of.

Thanks

davetherave2 · 12 Mar 2013 at 01:08

my 5 second effort.

ajf · 12 Mar 2013 at 14:54

Ah, thanks

So what is the method to doing this?
Obviously pretty straightforward but not in the realm of what I normally do!

davetherave2 · 12 Mar 2013 at 15:36

well I use paint.net rather than photoshop. I find it much easier for the non-graphic designer like me.

simply select the magic wand tool then click the background and then once selected delete it. This gives you the transparent background then use the fill tool to re-colour the item.

ajf · 12 Mar 2013 at 20:10

Seemed so easy..

Not sure what I'm doing! Got the background sorted OK and then changed the colour of the tools and all seems OK.
Then I save the image and all I end up with is a blank white square. Saving it seems to change the transparency to white.
I tested it on this post to check it didn't work when posted, and it is definitely saving as a white square!

Looks OK:

Saved:

davetherave2 · 12 Mar 2013 at 20:21

if you are saving it as a jpg then it won't handle the transparency so save it as a png or gif.

ajf · 12 Mar 2013 at 20:24

Ah, got it

Thanks for that. Never occurred to me. Usually only deal with RAW photos in image editing.

davetherave2 · 12 Mar 2013 at 20:31

no problems.

I find paint.net is at my level with photo editing/image manipulation.

It's a brilliant piece of software for the non-photoshopper like me who is scared by the billions of options available.