Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2020 March 29

= March 29 =

GIMP program.
So I was told to download Gimp because Microsoft Paint doesn't support this feature. There are certain .png images in a white background. I was asking how do you paste it to an image but instead of the white background, it blends into the image being pasted itself as the background? Well, just downloaded Gimp, been trying to paste images into it, and pastes with a black background instead (and can't find a way to move it around). Don't know a thing about Gimp. 67.175.224.138 (talk) 16:51, 29 March 2020 (UTC).
 * Options:
 * Run up GIMP and click on the "help" tab.
 * Go to the online help
 * Get a book. I can recommend  available from Amazon.
 * Use copies of the originals and have a play! Martin of Sheffield (talk) 17:06, 29 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Weird, I see on the help file, multiple paste options such as "paste into selection." I just reopened Gimp and noticed whenever I paste now, I can drag and drop it anywhere within the image (was previously stuck to the center of the image). I don't know how it happened. But both paste and paste into selection does the same visible thing, image is pasted with a square black background, how do I get rid of the black background? 67.175.224.138 (talk) 17:31, 29 March 2020 (UTC).


 * I don't use Gimp, but I think you're what you're asking about is the transparency (graphic) of the image you're pasting. You may want to look for "transparency" in the Gimp documentation. --69.159.8.46 (talk) 18:26, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

Okay, I found the answer. I ask in their IRC chatroom. Apparently you can't copy/paste a .png from the web browser straight into Gimp. (Black background.). You have to download the .png 1st, and open with Gimp. (Checkerboard background.). Then you can paste. If it doesn't have the checkerboard background it won't work. I don't see how pointing to a manual helps. 67.175.224.138 (talk) 19:09, 29 March 2020 (UTC).


 * The checkerboard background generally symbolizes transparency. I presume that's mentioned in the manual somewhere, although it's fairly common in all picture editors. If you take a screenshot of a picture in a web browser, it won't have transparency. You need to save the png file, and that png file also needs to have transparency. MS Paint in Windows 7 supports pasting a picture onto another picture without ending up with a surrounding colored box, but you have to enable "Transparent selection". It will then treat Color 2 pixels as transparent. The resulting combined picture will however lose any other transparency data since MS Paint doesn't understand transparency data. 89.172.106.70 (talk) 10:18, 31 March 2020 (UTC)