transparency in custom icons

[Cooz]

Hi everyone,

I am busy creating custom tabs in the in Word and Excel 2007 ribbons.
I would like to use my own icons in them (mostly in .png format), but I
can't seem to get rid of their white backgrounds.
Of course, I want the backgrounds to be transparent.
How can I achieve this?

Thank you,
Cooz

 

[Clif McIrvin]

Hi everyone,

I am busy creating custom tabs in the in Word and Excel 2007 ribbons.
I would like to use my own icons in them (mostly in .png format), but
I
can't seem to get rid of their white backgrounds.
Of course, I want the backgrounds to be transparent.
How can I achieve this?

Thank you,
Cooz

--
Icon Editor Utility
Icon Suite Version 2.1.12
http://www.bouffler.freeserve.co.uk/icon_edit.htm

Pretty straightforward; help file is included.

Thanks to Tony Toews for the pointer.

I've been meaning to create a page on that topic. In the mean time
try downloading a free program called Icon Suite. When you are
creating icons design/import whatever the largest size, 64x64 and get
that one looking good.

One key thing about that program is you have to know exactly what to
do to make part of the icon transparent if that's what you want. It
involves the graphic with a diagonal slash on it. I'd have to play
with it a bit to refresh my memory.

In version 2.1.12 an "erased" pixel is a transparent pixel, and is shown
with a diagonal slash.

 

[Cooz]

Hi Clif,

I've installed the VB6 runtime files, and it still doesn't work. The program
shows up alright, but I can't seem to get anything on the drawing surface.
The pallette is one blank area, that delivers a Subscript out of range when I
double click it.

I would like to get rid of the white background of my mainly .png icons,
IconSuite doesn't support .png.

Cooz

 

[Clif McIrvin]

I'm really not very familiar with working with graphics; hopefully
someone else will pick up the thread.

I'd think you can use Paint to convert your .png to a format that Icon
Suite does support.

I'm running Office 2003 on WinXP; and I have a program under Office
Tools called Microsoft Office Picture Manager. It also seems to have
the ability to change graphic formats.

(Save As ...)