Flattening my image creates a background

2825 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by gnomewerks, Oct 21, 2008

gnomewerks

Discussion Starter · Oct 18, 2008

My program: Photoshop
My problem: An image with no background or "transparency" defaults to having a white background unless I save as a .tiff or .psd (basically keeping the layers)...

If I created very bold, vector style art that looks like a sticker then it is not an issue to pull the art off the background. I can use the magic wand. I know how to do that.

I know that I can create a new file and set the background to transparent. It then gives me the checkerboard background and all is well. I know how to do that.

I know that once I get rid of the background so that my art can use the background of the t-shirt color I can save it as a layered file and all is well, including a .tiff, .gif with preserve transparency and all that jazz.

My problem is when meeting the requirements from my screen printer specifically. My design uses a few ghosted images and text and other design elements that are erased at low opacity. It gives me the layering and smooth, almost gradient like transitional effect I want. These images are obviously a pain to deal with when using the magic wand tool. The screen printer I am using wants files to be flattened. Doing so creates a background color by default. I don't want that because obviously, I'd want the negative space in my images (whether complete negative or simply lower opacity areas) to only have the background color of the t-shirt go through. I found a way to save it as a .tiff file with all layers merged but once I save it it still warns me of the "leaving layers will increase file size". This happens even with only a single layer in photoshop (the layer with my work on it) and the transparent background. In turn, my file sizes are massive - like 100MB (since its 300dpi). Since I'm typically uploading my files via the web to the printer it can get kind of unwieldy.

Any advice or recommendations of how to get rid of backgrounds and save the file without the impression of layers (that increase file size a lot)?

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Naga

· #2 · Oct 18, 2008

When you have a background layer, it will always be solid.
Go to the layer menu and choose "New" - "Layer From Background" and flatten.

EDIT: You can now make Layer 0, the previous Background layer, transparent before you flatten.

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jkruse

· #3 · Oct 18, 2008

I've had flattened images sent to me in a .tiff and the background was transparent.

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espeinc

· #4 · Oct 18, 2008

your screen printer can make color seps from a flattened photoshop file
that is the way most programs - like fast films - do it....

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gnomewerks

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 18, 2008

thanks much guys

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freebird1963

· #6 · Oct 18, 2008

Hello
What exactly meant by "flattening" the image.
I have seen it used before. Just starting to get into Photoshop more.

Did some searches for it but got into some digital photography forums and them boys talk way to technical for my damaged brain.

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prometheus

· #7 · Oct 18, 2008

You could try to save it out as a .png file with a transparent background. Anther thing is that using the layer palettes function flatten the image will do just that. Another option is to select a layer that is transparent and do a "Merge Visible". This will merge all the visible layers into the layer that is selected. The only thing you need to be careful of, is if you have any layers that are not visible, they will remain, which you can easily discard.

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mandobear

· #8 · Oct 20, 2008

freebird1963 said:
Hello
What exactly meant by "flattening" the image.
I have seen it used before. Just starting to get into Photoshop more.

Did some searches for it but got into some digital photography forums and them boys talk way to technical for my damaged brain.

When working in Photoshop you can create multiple layers to do artwork on so that you can keep different elements of your design separated from each other thus making it easier to work with. Basically "flattening" the image means that you turn all your layers into just one layer. Thats basically it. Hope that helps.

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gnomewerks

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 21, 2008

espeinc said:
your screen printer can make color seps from a flattened photoshop file
that is the way most programs - like fast films - do it....

That color seperation is not the same as me just using a magic wand tool to remove the background color is it?

My printer tells me to just put a background behind my design that is the color of the t-shirt. The problem is, my t-shirt isn't a flat color like dark green. It has tea dyes and washes so even the dark green shirt has various smudges and randomness that give it more than just a flat dark green color.

My design meanwhile has some fades and many layers of things like half erase, gradients and smooth transitions from complete white all the way through the greys into total black. I simply don't want to lose detail or have edges become hard instead of feathered and wouldn't want certain colors to show up where I really intended the negative space to show the color of the shirt..

Am I just worrying to much and can the printers truly seperate easily?

thanks again!

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