Jpg sign image without rectangle box

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am wanting to insert an image onto the fascade of a building in ArchiCad 12. I have the images as .eps files, which I have imported into photoshop and created jpg images. The problem is that when I place and position them in archicad, I get a rectangle background around the image.

For example one of the images is a brand logo on a white background. In photoshop I have selected and deleted the white background, so there are blank pixels where the white was. I output this a a JPG and import into archicad libaray.

I want to place this onto the front of a building to look like this logo is attached directly to the metal panel on the fascade. The white rectangular background I get by instering this as a picture (object, custom image) destroys this.

I would appreciate any advise on how to achieve this.

Regards & Thanks

Anthony

[Mats_Knutsson]

A 10-year bump .

When publishing an image with alpha channel...what can I use it for? I tried all five image formats with alpha and just opened up in photoshop and they all looked like regular one layer images. What did I miss?

[Nader Belal]

@Mats_knutsson

1. Time: It's an 11 year bump
2. Photoshop: Alpha Channel is in Channel Group

3. Alpha Channel: It's name would be "alpha", but there are two main states black and white, were one means it's totally transparent and the other is not. (Greys define the degree of transparency)

4. File format: The last time I used alpha channel was a tif format, others I don't quiet remember but I believe it would cost you nothing.

5. Load into ArchiCAD: you will need to load the pic with the alpha channel to the project library

6. Activating the alpha channel with in ArchiCAD: In "Surfaces" you should indicate to ArchiCAD to take into account the alpha channel by click on "Transparency"

7. If things gets missed up in the way check "Foliage - Leaves Tree Small" in Surfaces

[Barry Kelly]

Mats_Knutsson wrote:
A 10-year bump .

When publishing an image with alpha channel...what can I use it for? I tried all five image formats with alpha and just opened up in photoshop and they all looked like regular one layer images. What did I miss?

Yes the image may look like a standard image with one layer.
But it will have a masking channel that is really just a selection area that is saved with the image as 'Alpha channel'.
It may depend on the software you open the image in as to how you find/see this masking channel.
I don't have photoshop - just use an old program called Paint Shop Pro.
I create a selection and save the selection as an alpha channel (just to confuse things the selection is actually the bit that is not the alpha channel - but the bit you want to keep and see).

So this is the alpha channel saved in the image.


This is what it looks like when used in my window object's user interface.


And here I have deliberately changed the shape of the alpha channel selection so you can see better what it does.


As mentioned this can also be used for images when rendering, such as around the leaves of a tree or person for billboard objects or the holes in a chainlink fence or perforated screen.


Barry.

[Mats_Knutsson]

Really good explanations guys and I know and use alpha channels in surface textures... so I feel a little guilty not being clear about my question. I was going to write an internal document about publishing stuff and normally when it comes to images we use jpg/png/pdf straight out of the box but i couldn't help clicking in the options button and when I saw tha alpha setting i hoped for a simple way to mask out "something" in photoshop much like exporting from Artlantis for montage/green screen stuff. But I don't see any difference in photoshop on a regular ong saved with "color" or a png saved with "alpha channel".
Br,
Mats

[Barry Kelly]

I'm still not sure what you are looking for.
You won't see any difference to the image in Photoshop.
The image of the window I used before (.TIF) has the green background and that is exactly what it looks like in the photo editing software.
But because it has the alpha mask (selection saved as an alpha channel) the green appears transparent when placed in any documents.

I am not familiar with Photoshop, so I am not sure if there is an option somewhere to say show the image with the alpha channel as transparent - if that is what you are after.


Barry.

[runxel]

Mats, are yout talking about renderings?
That's the only place this actually works (afaik, maybe I'm wrong, but I never used that anywhere else).

BTW: I would never publish any other things as images right away from Archicad, because the image-producing engine is old and bad. If you need images from let's say the floor plan make a PDF and batch-convert them into whatever you need.

[Mats_Knutsson]

I'm referring to the dialogue window in the attach. When I choose publisher format as image (all of the different image formats) Archicad gives me these options which I don't know how to use or if they are of any practical use. I never use anything else than color and 100% but I was recording a "how to publish for dummies" video and when these options appeared I kind of got stuck. I could say "don't care about the other options" but if the "buts" are too many it's confusing. I was kind of curious about these options and what they actually do IRL.
I don't render with Archicad except for simple exteriors and sketch renders.

It's interesting to create super basic tutorials when I'm pretty savvy with Archicad and navigate through the woods with my own since long learned workflow. I kind of avoid/don't see the bumps but for a new/occasional user it's confusing with so many trees in the forest...and no visible trail.

[runxel]

Mats_Knutsson wrote:
I'm referring to the dialogue window in the attach. When I choose publisher format as image (all of the different image formats) Archicad gives me these options which I don't know how to use or if they are of any practical use.

I just tested it, so I can safely say: The options indeed don't matter much except for renderings.
With them you can get an Alpha channel.
Grayscale and Black and White are pretty obvious. Just a word: The second one will give you an image with truly one-bit image depth, resulting in cool 80s vibe dithering.
High accuracy color is the stark opposite: It gives you an image with 32-bit image depth (default is 8-bit per channel).

That's already all to know! And as you can see nearly all options can be ignored safely indeed.

[Mats_Knutsson]

runxel wrote:

Mats_Knutsson wrote:
I'm referring to the dialogue window in the attach. When I choose publisher format as image (all of the different image formats) Archicad gives me these options which I don't know how to use or if they are of any practical use.

I just tested it, so I can safely say: The options indeed don't matter much except for renderings.
With them you can get an Alpha channel.
Grayscale and Black and White are pretty obvious. Just a word: The second one will give you an image with truly one-bit image depth, resulting in cool 80s vibe dithering.
High accuracy color is the stark opposite: It gives you an image with 32-bit image depth (default is 8-bit per channel).

That's already all to know! And as you can see nearly all options can be ignored safely indeed.

Haha I will safely ignore them as usual.