Transparent Icons

  1. Create an image that is 32 x 32 pixels. It can be in 16 million colors.
  2. Use the Magic Wand to select the color that you want to be transparent. If there are several areas that need to be selected, hold down the Shift key and click on each area with the Magic Wand to add them to your selection. Alternately, after selecting one area, go to Selections | Modify | Select Similar. This will select all areas having that same color.
  3. Go to Masks | New | Hide Selection. The selected color will disappear and be replaced by the checkerboard.
  4. Go to Masks | Delete. You will be prompted with, "Would you like this mask merged into the current layer?" Click the Yes button.
  5. Remove the selection.
  6. Go to File | Save. When the Save dialog opens, select "IconFormat" from the "Save as Type" drop-down list. You will be prompted with, "Because of the limitations of the specified file format (and possibly the save options you've selected), the saved file will be limited to a merged image. Would you like to continue?" Click Yes.
  7. You'll know if you've been successful if your icon appears transparent in Windows Explorer, the Save dialog, or the Open dialog. Mind you, if your original background was white and your window backgrounds are also white, you won't be able to tell that way so perhaps pick a different color for your background at the outset.