Hi Bob, Can you make a picture have an opaque effect?
http://kb.4d.com/assetid=77891 Regards, Vance Villanueva -----Original Message----- From: 4D_Tech [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bob Miller via 4D_Tech Sent: Monday, July 09, 2018 8:20 AM To: [email protected] Cc: Bob Miller Subject: Converting pictures on 4D forms (Windows) to get transparency Hi Everyone, I'm in the process of going through a database to convert all the pictures, icons, and such in it so I can use the database with 64-bit 4D v16 (and eventually v17). The documentation is pretty clear that even though any images pasted in did not start life as PICTS - and I'm talking about things like arrows, some icons, line drawings, navigation tools, etc., that are part of the user interface, not actual photo type pictures - 4D would receive and store them as PICTS, so you have to find each one and convert it. To do this, I'm using JPR's Picture Conversion utility that he provided on the 2017 4D Road Tour. It does a fine job as it can scan all the forms, find the offending pictures, list them, and then provides a utility where you can either convert them and put them into the picture library or convert them and put them into an external folder. One thing I'm finding is that the conversion doesn't support transparency, so I end up with pictures that have white backgrounds, which doesn't look nice. Here is part of a thread from me to JPR: Me: When I drag a Static Picture to the converter, then back to the form, it seems to lose its transparency, even though the 'Transparent' property is turned ON. How can this be fixed? JPR> It cannot. The transparency done previously by 4D was just a trick replacing the white pixels with the background color dynamically, because the concept of transparency didn't exist at this time (like in PICT, JPEG, etc.) JPR> Now 4D uses the modern toolbox which relies on the picture transparency information coming from the alpha channel. So if you want transparent pictures, you must convert into a format supporting alpha channel (like PNG) and use any software able to add the alpha layer to your pictures. On Mac, the simplest one to add alpha channel is PaintBrush (from Soggy Waffles). You add transparency with the paint Fill tool The problem is that I'm on Windows. Does anyone have a recommendation for fast technique that they've used that supports this "alpha channel' so I can convert my non-transparent images so that they are transparent again? It looks so bad having an arrow on a form with a big white background. Thank you - Bob Miller Chomerics, a division of Parker Hannifin Corporation llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll "PLEASE NOTE: The preceding information may be confidential or privileged. It only should be used or disseminated for the purpose of conducting business with Parker. If you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender by replying to this message and then delete the information from your system. Thank you for your cooperation." ********************************************************************** 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) FAQ: http://lists.4d.com/faqnug.html Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html Options: https://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech Unsub: mailto:[email protected] ********************************************************************** ********************************************************************** 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) FAQ: http://lists.4d.com/faqnug.html Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html Options: https://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech Unsub: mailto:[email protected] **********************************************************************
