GIMP: Convert Images Into Icons (with transparent background)

[Jimboticon]

Can you please explain how to cut out an image and have it on a clear background and save it? I want to be able to upload pictures and then cut them out so I can save them. That way, I can upload them into Toon Boom animation software and make my own cartoons. All I need to know is how to cut them out and save them on a clear background. That way, when I pull them up on Toon Boom, it is just the item I cut out and nothing else, not even the background. Thanks.

[geekyartist]

@Jimboticon if you have a plain background, you can use the fuzzy select tool to cut out an image, if the background is not plain, you need to manually select the outline of the image using the path tool :)

[jimmydeanbakker]

Geekyartist, thanks for all the videos, man. I knew about GIMP for a long time, but never knew how to do things like flaming text, feather borders, and all the cool stuff until I stumbled on your videos. I hope that you can find the time in the future to keep spitting out these videos because you're easy to follow.

[geekyartist]

@jimmydeanbakker glad I was able to help, thank you :) will do more videos soon!

[georgegmlol]

thanks. was real easy to follow and was exactly what i was looking for.

[geekyartist]

@georgegmlol thank you, glad to help :)

[624gamer]

thank you

[workinhere08]

This helped. Thank you!

[Stolemyusename]

Thanks, now I know how to do this..

[cuteme5619]

Hey its Squall from Final Fantasy in your backround! :D

[xXFredBurgerXx]

thank you very much :)

[burn1down2k]

thanks little man, a very helpful tip for creating transparencies from a background, i was neva able to do it, until now.

[tempemonkey2323]

Thanks DUDE!!!!

[kicker4949]

whats your theme?

[dare4irina]

Thank youuu so much. This helped me alot c: !

[luiseduardo586]

ughhh...windows... :( .... Just kidding, good video, I learnt something. Thanks.

[geekyartist]

@luiseduardo586 you're welcome

[MrEARTHSHAcKER]

thanks

[100yungD100]

how do you do this? : i took a random picture from google and i try to only use 1 part of it like only1 guyso i select the guy coppy it open it again some where else then try to give it no back ground that dosnt work it automaticly brings the back ground to white :S plz help me

[bRoWnPRiDE11000]

she sounds sexy =D

[pootellytubby]

@bRoWnPRiDE11000 very sexy

[enqvistleyco]

@bRoWnPRiDE11000 I think he's a guy.

[kristikclark]

I tried this and it said I must first export because the jpeg conversion can't handle transparency. I tried exporting and when I openened it, it was white and not transparent. Do you know how to fix this?

[geekyartist]

yup .. save it as either .png or .bmp for images

cause .jpgs don't support this feature :(

[Kidzrule743]

Thanks dude, you're awsome :D

[geekyartist]

thanks as well :)

glad I was able to help

[Kidzrule743]

Thanks dude, your awsome :D

[shadic253]

thanx man ive been fighting wit this for 6 hours u make it easy

[geekyartist]

no problem :)

[VmuteV]

What if I were to use the image as a custom spray for a game (a lot bigger than a .ico) what extension could I use ?

[geekyartist]

.png works out as fine

.jpg files don't support this I'm afraid :(

[VmuteV]

Thank you .

[geekyartist]

no problem

[RedTeamSniper]

it doesnt save...? i open the picture up after i save and it still has the background but if i put it on gimp it doesnt...

[geekyartist]

it should and you should save it as filename.png or filename.gif if you want pictures instead of icons because jpg doesn't support this

[RedTeamSniper]

ty. i knew about the icon but thanks for the gif :)

[geekyartist]

no problem :)

[notherenowgoaway]

Perfect, thanks for the help

[geekyartist]

you're welcome :)

[Va1entine82]

This is a great tutorial, and has helped me use and understand transparency with the Gimp program! 5 STAR!!!!!!!

[geekyartist]

@Va1entine82 thank you :) glad I was able to help

[geekyartist]

you are welcome :)

[KobyStormShow]

thank you so much very helpful you got my sub

[geekyartist]

thank you for the sub :)

glad i could help

[crow610]

thanks!

[geekyartist]

no prob !

[GamingAbuse]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

[geekyartist]

YOU ARE WELCOME :)

[dalellll]

This is brilliant, and seems realy simple, though when i try it, i get an error message saying "the file [filename] contains no icon". Is it possible this doesn't work with Windows XP? Strangely enough, Windows still recognises "*.ico" files as "icon" files, it only claims they're not when i actually try to use them. Is there a specific way i should be saving them in GIMP? e.g. RGB versus Indexed colour, or something along those lines?

[geekyartist]

well, as long as you save your images as .ico files, windows will always recognize them as icons automatically

[geekyartist]

thanks :)

[thermophille]

Can you make the icon to have a higher res? so it would be like the ones vista has?

[geekyartist]

you can change the number of pixels or the image size

i believe it's 256x256 for vista icons

[BestShowFreak]

Thanks :)

[geekyartist]

you're welcome :D

[vkohmoviemaker]

and i need it in .jpg or bmp or blabla

[geekyartist]

bmp supports transparency, jpgs don't

[vkohmoviemaker]

but if i save as bmp , it doesnt appear in my desktop

[vkohmoviemaker]

i mean that it is back to the original (my backgroundcolor is back)

[geekyartist]

if you save it as a jpg image, you won't achieve transparency :(

[geekyartist]

try pngs or gifs, save your file as .png

[vkohmoviemaker]

yea that works , many thanks to you man

[geekyartist]

no problem

[vkohmoviemaker]

yes i know , but i make my sprays transparent for CSS sprays ... and CSS only reconizes .bmp , .tga , .jpg and .gif

[vkohmoviemaker]

.jpg doesnt support transparant ... can u please gimme info ?

[notentirelynecessary]

Nice tute.

The fuzzy select is good for quick selections like this, but often leaves some of the background color around the subject. (i.e. the thin white line around the hamster in this case)

A quick way to remove that:

Once you've made your fuzzy selection, before you remove the background, go to Select>Shrink and shrink by 2 or 3 pixels (depending on the scale)

This way you get a more precise cut out.

Keep up the good work!

[geekyartist]

back at you man :)

really helpful, thank you for that

[TheMaggot81]

Great Tutorial, very easy to understand, thanks ;)

[geekyartist]

thank you, glad i could help

more to come :D

[tutorialguy345]

thx iam tellying every one to sub

[geekyartist]

wow .. thank you

[jasonbusich]

i have a spray i import to thing and transparent then i make spray invisable

[jameswx09]

thanks ;)

[geekyartist]

you're welcome

[ch0c0late00]

great job! thanks so much, i got it:D

[geekyartist]

you're welcome :)

[whaddahecko]

i got jpeg files and want to change them into dll files, i can do that with this program?

[geekyartist]

i haven't tried converting jpgs to dll files using GIMP

[whaddahecko]

Ohh, don't worry, i can make icons by now, the problem is that i can not get a tranparent background, but i'm not really into gimp yet..i'll check it out later

Thanks anyway ^.^

[geekyartist]

no problem :)

[MICKTAM12]

how come when i save it, its says that the gimp plug ins couldn't runder the transparent image ?

pelase help

[geekyartist]

hmmm .. try updating your GIMP

[MICKTAM12]

oh never mind just found out that i had to change the format to png LOL

thanks anyway

[geekyartist]

oh yeah .. png supports transparency and jpgs don't lol sorry bout that

[geekyartist]

you're welcome :)

[jeggo9]

Thanks!

[sabeth23]

I'm a real newbie to Gimp & am just getting into it to upload textures into Second Life. I have got to say this has been one of the easiest, most to-the-point tutorials regarding transparency that i've found.

Thank you so much!

[geekyartist]

you're welcome .. glad to help :)

[sgeorgstvn]

Thank you dude.

[ullabulladk123]

omfg FUCK NICE<3 thaz<<333

[scubasteve141987]

to the point, informative, and very easy to follow

thanks!

[geekyartist]

thanks .. no problem :)

[EmmaWilson699]

I love you(lol) thank you so much, I've been on youtube forever and everyone else is so complicated but yours was so simple, once again thank you! ^-^

[geekyartist]

glad to help :)

you're welcome

[runescapexx8]

Wow thank you so much! I was looking for a way to make a transparent spray for counter strike source and this really worked out well! Thank you again :)

[geekyartist]

no problem, glad i could help :)

[brickhousemomma]

THANK YOU so much! I do editing to upload into Secondlife this was so much easier. thanks!

[geekyartist]

you're welcome :)

[WindowsDavid]

thanks

[geekyartist]

you're welcome

[jriverolangley]

This is simple but VERY useful.

Thank you so much!!! :):):)

[geekyartist]

you're welcome :)

[potol5678]

thnx :)

[geekyartist]

no problem :)

[iParro]

Same here, .jpg cant handle transperency.

What do i do?

[geekyartist]

be sure you had selected layer->transparency->add alpha channel before selecting the fuzzy select tool

it should support .jpg files

[geekyartist]

ok .. another solution to that .. instead of .jpg .. save it as a .png file instead :)

it seems that .jpg doesn't support transparency

[happypeoplestudio]

my jpg cant handle transparency what should i do?

[geekyartist]

i had sent you a message about this :)

[geekyartist]

ok .. another solution to that .. instead of .jpg .. save it as a .png file instead :)

it seems that .jpg doesn't support transparency

[muhzika]

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH ^_^

[geekyartist]

no problem :)

[kaosboy13]

Seeing what the image is, when you said "fuzzy select", I chuckled. I chuckled again when it selected the hamster.

[martialtaichi]

Thank you :)

[geekyartist]

no problem :)

[sk33212]

Cool I've been looking for what size my Icons should be saved in, now I randomly found out! :D Thanks.

[geekyartist]

no problem :)

[geekyartist]

hmm .. be sure you select - add alpha channel - under layer - transparency before using the fuzzy select tool :)

[LGanteM]

DUDE! U R DA MAN!

[WiiHax]

Thanks! I learned so much!

[geekyartist]

you're welcome :)

[WiiHax]

Thanks! I learned so much! You're the best!

[DeadlyFury16]

nice video

[geekyartist]

thanks :j