How To Make A Transparent Background In Sai

For many artists, it'south likely that y'all'll want to save transparent drawings at some point, for their uses in layouts and graphics and otherwise. And given that Photoshop every bit an expensive investment and Paint Tool SAI (which tends to lack transparency in diverse versions) is and so popular, it can exist hard to know how precisely to accomplish this. This is where I'll try to help!

Checking if your Paint Tool SAI secretly has transparency

SAI can be a flake hard to figure out when information technology comes to this, simply some versions do indeed accept transparency support. Here'due south how to do information technology when you exercise have ane of those versions:

For SAI i

[Pictured: SAI 1's layers, with the background layer selected and hidden.]

Outset of all, make sure whatever background layers you have are hidden. SAI 1 won't bear witness y'all any checkerboxes in the groundwork for transparency, simply yous can bank check if your drawing is encounter-through past filling a layer underneath with black (and and then hiding information technology once again, of form).

[Pictured: A cute, see-through Nosepass with a black backgroud.]

Yous can meet the black groundwork on this Nosepass, and so it's good to go. Make sure y'all hibernate that blackness layer again!

From here, click on File, become to Consign every bit, select .png, and type in whatever filename you'd like.

[Pictured: The File, Export and .png shown as stated above.]

If your SAI supports transparency, the below dialog box should popular up later you salvage information technology.

[Pictured: A dialog box for PNG Save Options, showing 24bpp RGB and 32bpp ARGB options.]

You want to select 32bpp ARGB (Each pixel take Opacity) for a transparent prototype. With whatsoever luck, it'll work perfectly!

For SAI ii

Paint Tool SAI 2 makes transparency a bit easier to encounter. Similarly to above, hide any background layers, and and so click on Canvas, hover over Background, and select Transparent (Bright checker).

[Pictured: The Canvas, Background and Transparent options as detailed above.]

If your drawing is transparent, it should testify immediately with some gray checkerboxes. For a very high res motion picture, you may have to zoom in to meet them, though!

[Pictured: Nosepass with grey checkerboxes in the background.]

And again, export information technology and save information technology. SAI 2 should handle any transparency automatically, as long every bit yous save your file equally .png. This is very important, then please make certain it's .png.

[Pictured: Fully transparent Nosepass!]

Congratulate yourself on your luck, your version of SAI supports transparency!

When your version of SAI cannot make things transparent

Information technology's unfortunate, but with and then many versions floating around some of them just can't do it. Here is how you can piece of work around that.

Step One: Ensuring your cartoon is appropriate for transparency

Since nearly art programs start y'all with a white background, including SAI, a lot of people don't feel the need to fill in white colouring (such as eyes) or make clean upwardly any light pixels that may leak from the linework. By creating a temporary groundwork layer underneath everything that'south filled with black, you can set up these instances and ensure they wait skillful on every background.

[Pictured: Identical Wooper drawings on a white and black background.]

As you can meet in a higher place, there's no pixelly edges or leaky colouring on the Wooper with a night background, and its heart whites have been filled in. Otherwise, the Wooper would have blackness eyes and look a niggling spooky!

Footstep Two: Preserving your layers in a cantankerous-uniform format

[Pictured: Wooper shown with the layers used to make its image.]

For the sake of ease it'south vital that you lot take an file with layers rather than a flat image. It is still possible to cut out a drawing that'due south been flattened onto an opaque background, but we'll get into that a bit subsequently.

[Pictured: Paint Tool SAI1's menu, with the cursor hovering on

Yous will ideally want to consign your art as a .PSD, as seen in a higher place. While information technology may technically be a Photoshop file, sure free image programs are compatible with .PSD files and tin can be used to open up and edit them.

Step Three: Alas, you must download one of them

With Photoshop presumably unavailable to you lot, you'll have to download a specific image-editing software to add transparency. The best choice for this is GIMP, as it'southward completely gratis of charge to use and compatible with both Windows and Mac. It may seem complicated at first, but don't worry!

Step Iv: Opening files is a struggle

Once you lot've downloaded GIMP and installed it (presumably with custom settings!), the very side by side footstep is opening it upwards and then opening your .PSD file in it. Be patient, as GIMP can take a while to start. It can as well be a flake jarring, since by default it opens several small windows rather than one large window. Only equally usual, clicking on File and then Open up will become you to the file selection prompt. However, I will recommend putting things you want to edit in a small and easily-accessible folder, since GIMP's file viewer has its own interface and lists everything by filename.

[Pictured: GIMP's overwhelming file viewer, with a list of non-specific Nosepass filenames.]

How could this happen to me...

Once you find your paradigm, information technology should be smooth sailing!

[Pictured: Wooper's layers didn't work as plan, and it looks a little spooky.]

...Nevertheless, if you use clipping group layers as much every bit I do in SAI1, you may want to merge those specific ones with the layer underneath when you're prepping the file. Whoops! Equally of now, I don't know how to fix this in GIMP itself, but doing the needed edits to the .PSD in SAI is easy enough.

[Pictured: Showing a layer with the Clipping Group option selected in SAI, and the layer underneath.]

So to reiterate, merge Clipping Group layers (identifiable by the box beingness ticked and the pinkish line on the side as seen higher up) with the layer they're attached to. If you do it correctly, your image will look exactly the same, except not broken when yous open them in GIMP. Simple!

Step 5: It'due south finally fourth dimension

Upon opening the fixed file in GIMP, the next step is refreshingly uncomplicated: You discover the background layer on your picture (whether information technology's a white background or a temporarily coloured i) and delete it.

[Pictured: The background layer is highlighted on the layer panel, with hovertext displaying

The groundwork of your motion-picture show should change to grey checkerboxes, every bit you can run across below. This means it worked!

[Pictured: Wooper with a grey checkerboard pattern background, showing that it's transparent.]

Step Six: Saving your movie

GIMP naturally has an unintuitive way of saving images, also. Here's what you'll want to practice:

With that, your picture should be transparent! You can tell when y'all click on it in your folders, and the blueish selection color shows through!

[Pictured: Wooper, small and see-through.

From here, it's down to you lot what you'll utilise your transparent pictures for. Relish your newfound power, and accept fun!

[Pictured: The final transparent Wooper!

"Simply what if my prototype is flat?"

Not every image is blessed with layers, so for those cases you'll have to exercise things the difficult manner. Depending on the fashion, you can either zoom in actually close with an eraser and delete the backgrounds past mitt, or a simple option trick will piece of work.

Footstep Ane: Selecting and removing the unwanted space

Beginning of all, please make sure yous're editing either your own art or fine art that is really official, even if you have to triple-check to be sure. Editing other artists' work isn't cool, whereas official renders and official Pokémon images are available for anybody to utilise in manufactures and publications (and by extension, graphics).

[Pictured: Some Global Link art for Pansage.

Then, what can we do about this Pansage'southward official art? The lines are a solid night colour then information technology'southward fairly safe to use a choice tool. For a programme similar SAI, it's best to make a dark layer underneath (even if it isn't visible at first) and edit your option settings until you accept well-nigh of the unwanted colour selected. Anti-aliasing is what you'll need for a shine edge, simply if y'all're editing pixel art information technology'll have to be unticked for a pixelly edge.

[Pictured: The same Pansage, with its white pixels selected.

At this point a good trick is clicking on Selection and Increase, so using Cut to remove the white space. Simply for a small epitome like this Pansage, information technology will more than than probable take abroad a portion of the linework.

Step Ii: Quickly fixing the linework

[Pictured: The same Pansage, with some linework missing. It's shown on both black and white backgrounds, and the white one shows the missing lines clearly.

It won't e'er be a perfect solution, but for a picture similar this you lot tin select the outside of the image again, Invert the option, Increment it (or Amplify Choice 1px in SAI2), and fill up it with the outline colour on a layer underneath. You may also have to increment it multiple times until it looks juuuust right. Information technology's not ideal, and for many cases you might want to zoom in and do some editing to become it looking just correct. At the very least, information technology's a quick method with quick results.

Step Three: In-depth editing

[Pictured: The same Pansage, but transparent. However, the edges are a bit jagged.

You may not exist fully satisfied with how it looks at this point - this Pansage has some jagged edges along its lines and looks a scrap messy. If you are willing to go the actress pace, you can zoom in and use a 1px anti-aliased brush and 1px eraser to fix the edges until it looks correct to you. If it'south your ain art yous're editing, it'southward fully downward to your discretion.

[Pictured: The same Pansage, but with more smooth edges.

Since this Pansage is Global Link art, I only felt comfy editing simply the edges. Information technology does look a lot better now, though, and information technology's fully transparent! Simply imagine all the absurd graphics I could brand with such a good, transparent friend.

Above all else, stay determined. You can brand all the transparent pictures if you endeavour!

Page terminal updated on 14th November 2017 at 00:47 GMT.