Creating GIF images without white borders problem in Photoshop
By Rafiq Elmansy (admin) | August 12, 2008 | Posted in Photoshop | 8 Comments
GIF images are a good choice in low size and transparency support for most web designers. But the big problem that most designers face is the white border that shows up around your transparent GIF image while saving them from Photoshop or other software.
Figure01, notice the edges in GIF format transparent images and PNG-24 format
Actually, this white border happens when GIF images does not calculate the transparency very well as this format compress the colors to the limit or may be distorting the colors if you try to decrease the size a little bit more using the GIF setting.
In this quick tutorial, we will show how to avoid these white borders with using the Matting feature in Photoshop. Actually, the matting feature allows you to only replace this white border with your background color so it looks better and the image consists well with the background.
As we see in figure01, the floral motive on the left is in GIF format, and it shows not clean edges with white background while the one on the right (PNG-24 format) has a better edges.
The following steps shows how to save your object in GIF format without this undesired edges using the Matte option in the Save for Web & Devices in Adobe Photoshop CS3:
1- Open the transparent image you want to save as GIF in Photoshop CS3.
2- From File menu choose Save for Web & Devices.
3- From the left panel of the dialog box, choose the GIF format from the drop-down menu.
4- Make sure that the Transparency check box is checked.
5- The Matte drop down-menu gives you ability to choose the color that GIF will treat the edges with. For example, you can choose the Foreground to select the foreground color, Background to choose the background color and you can choose a custom color from the Other option (figure02).
Figure02, Matte options in Adobe Photoshop CS3
6- Choose the color that is the same color that you will use your GIF image with. For example, if you are using HTML color code, you can add the same color the will be shown behind the image.
Some people just go to use PNG instead of GIF, but in some cases like banners, some CMS systems, it is required to have GIF images for transparent images.
Author: Rafiq Elmansy (admin) (571 Articles)
My name is Rafiq Elmansy, senior graphic design,founder of Graphic Mania and owner of Bee Design Studio. I am also an Adobe community expert, Adobe user group manager and Adobe certified Flash CS4 and Photoshop CS4 . As a contributor writer, I wrote articles for Adobe Design and Developer center. Also, I am a guest author at communitymx.com.
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8 Comments to “Creating GIF images without white borders problem in Photoshop”
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Harshadewa says:
Wow!! This is a really nice blog mate. Do you accept donations?
ctepeo says:
But what You should to do, when background have a gradient?
ex.: Your lime flower on black-white gradient?
Sometimes You can use only PNG, right?
admin says:
I mainly like to use PNG instead of GIF. But in non-tranceprancy images and backgrounds I prefer using JPG.
Crystal says:
Really nice tutorial, i also mainly work with PNG instead of GIF, however occasionally i may use GIF. Anyway this tutorial is very good tutorial, and you have a nice site as well.
Shore says:
Love your post, thanks for the information! I’m a shop keeper so I have to sneak in internet time at work. I dont really ever add comments but got on this page by clicking a wrong link. Keep posting more like this!, I favorited your site!
Jim Ripall says:
animation in ps cs4 are in gif i often have this problem in animation or in transparancy , i found a way to make better , i just resize to 150 pixels then i can work more easy the picture for gif animated transparancy ! but i go check what i can do with your tutorial ! me like you i use png only for transparancy and jpeg for the rest
Rafiq Elmansy (admin) says:
Thanks alot, actually we always face troubles when working with GIF because its extreme color compression, so I always prefer to work with PNG. But keep in mind that some old browsers before IE6 do not view the PNG properly.
PREM says:
Thanks. very helpful article ! Great story !