Member Avatar for Paladine

Hope this makes sense? (P.S my initial post was lost?)

By no stretch of the imagination am I a graphic editor, but I am wanting to replace/change the logo on a rather plain gradient colored wallpaper in windows with another logo. But the logo I have has a white background color. If it were a gif that was transparent I can make it work on the web, but not on a bitmap/jpg.

Is there any software that would allow me to do this? Photoshop, Paintshop, or Fireworks?

Thanks......for any suggestions?

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Nice quick solution from — that wand trick is fine for a one-off. For a cleaner, re-editable result and to avoid white halos or color loss, use a layer-based, non‑destructive workflow and keep a layered master file.

Workflow (Photoshop-friendly)

  • Place the wallpaper as the background layer and put the logo on its own layer (as a Smart Object if possible).
  • Add a layer mask to the logo layer and remove the white background on the mask (use a color-based selection, or paint on the mask with a soft brush for fine edges). Refining the mask with "Select and Mask" (smoothing/feather) preserves anti-aliased edges. If you see a white fringe, contract the selection by 1px before masking or use a 1px defringe to clean the edge.
  • When finished, keep the PSD as your master. For the actual desktop wallpaper flatten and export to the format your OS prefers (see next paragraph).

File formats and practical tips

  • For final, flattened desktop wallpapers use a high-quality JPG or BMP (many OS wallpaper engines expect flattened images). For web graphics that must preserve real transparency, export PNG‑24 (truecolor + alpha). Avoid GIF for photos/gradients — its 256‑color limit will introduce banding.
  • If the logo is dark on white and you only need a quick overlay, trying the logo layer in Multiply blending mode can drop the white, but this alters colors and only works with simple dark artwork.
  • Free alternatives: GIMP can do the same non‑destructive approach (add alpha, use Color to Alpha or layer masks). Paint.NET with plugins also works for simple tasks.

Final notes
Keep the layered file for future edits, export at the target screen size to avoid resampling artifacts, and confirm you have the right to use the logo.

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Member Avatar for Tekmaven

Open it into Photoshop, select the whole image and copy it into the clipboard. Goto File -> New. Photoshop will automatticly select the proper size for you, just make sure the "Transparent" radio button is selected.

When you have the new image open, paste the clipboard. Take the "Select Similar" tool (looks like a wand with a * on top). On the top adjust the tollerance to 1, and if it says something about Anti-Alasing, check it. Next, click on a white area of the logo. Now "cut" that (Edit -> Cut). The whitespace should now have become transparent.

When all the whitespace is gone, save the image as a GIF file.

This all should work, but the names may be a little different. Thats the risk you need to take when you're to lazy to open up Photoshop and get the proper names of the tools ;-). (This is all from my memory.. lol)

Hope this helps!

Member Avatar for Paladine

Thanks Tekmaven.

Good memory. It worked....sort of, just have to play with it I guess.

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