custom buttons in PS??

[pozzo]

hi>this is my problem> whenever i create my own buttons
in PS> tga. w/alpha> import into Menu Studio[w/transparency]> the edges look like crap.not smooth
Has anyone else encountered this problem>or have a
workaround to eliminate this>thankslll I'm using MS 2.0

[unknown user]

Use an image format which employs indexed color. The way I do transparent images in AMS which seems to work fine is to create them in Photoshop and then save them as PNGs (PNG is a "lossless" format which will do a good job on your photos) When you are saving them make sure you save the transparency (Click the transparency checkbox) as an alpha channel. In photoshop's save for web screen you can choose the palette to index your PNGs to but strictly speaking a windows palette isn't necessary since no one runs in 256 color mode. 16 bit color is more than enough to display proper photos.

Then once you have your PNGs saved with alpha channel (transparency) simply import them into AMS and check the "transparent" checkbox when you bring it in. This way the transparency is automatically detected and used as it was in Photoshop without having to select any color.

This works great. If you are attempting to use the images overtop of a photo or gradient, save your PNG from Photoshop using the predominant color from your photo or gradient as the matte color. This will ensure that the "halo" is invisible. (A halo is that little fuzz you get around a transparent image in the last few semi-transparent pixels of the edge)

Saving with no matte may cause some aliasing (jaggies). If you sample the dominant color under your button and use that for a matte when saving the alpha channel (transparency) you should never have a problem, even at 16 bit color.

MC