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How to Make a Transparent PNG in PhotoPad

How to Make a Transparent PNG in PhotoPad

What is a PNG image?

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. PNG files are great for use on the internet because they support transparency and because they are compact in size. They are commonly used for web design elements such as icons and logos. PNG graphics are incredibly versatile in their web applications. They can be used against any background and can make adding graphics to websites and other design projects extremely simple. PNG graphics are easy to use and they also happen to be easy to make. With a photo editing software like PhotoPad, you can make your own transparent PNG images for use in your next website or graphic design project.

Example of a PNG logo improving a website

Download PhotoPad for Windows

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How to Make a PNG Image with a Transparent Background

If you are starting from scratch and creating your own graphic, making a PNG image with a transparent background is easy. Open your latest version of PhotoPad and create a new file with a transparent background to work on. You can create a new project file from the New Image Menu by pressing Ctrl + N on your keyboard and then selecting the option that says Transparent for the background. If you have already made a new blank project file in PhotoPad, simply go the Edit tab, then choose Background and select Transparent. You will see that your white background has now been replaced with a faint grey and white checkerboard. This checkerboard means that the image effectively has no background. Any work that you do on top of the checkerboard will be the only thing that gets saved.

Creating a New Image with a Transparent Background

Try visiting the NCH Clipart Library under the Creative tab to add clipart to your transparent design project. The Clipart Library is filled with fun and interesting images that are great for use in logos and other graphic design projects.

NCH Clipart Library 

You can add text onto your transparent background too. Under the Tools tab you can select Text and then change the font, color, size and placement of your text on your new graphic. Many modern logos use two different fonts or two different font sizes for their company name and tagline.

Adding text onto a transparent background

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Removing the Background from an Image

If you already have an existing logo or graphic that you would like to make into a PNG image with a transparent background, no sweat. Open your file into PhotoPad and select the Wand Tool. The wand tool makes a selection by looking for the contrast between colors against the edge of your graphic and its background. You can adjust the level of sensitivity of the Wand Tool depending on how sharp the contrast between your image against its background is. Click on the background of your image with the wand tool to select it. We are trying to select everything that we want to get rid of. The wand tool makes one selection around the outline first. To select any additional elements you wish to remove, hold down the shift key while you click on those other areas in the image. It helps to zoom in close in order to select the smaller details such as the spaces inside letters like like "O" and "D."

Making a Wand Selection

Now that we have our background selected, we are going to simply press the delete key on our keyboard or right click and select "delete". This will delete all of the selected areas in the image. In our case that means it will delete everything except our logo. You will immediately see that the background has disappeared and in its place there is now a white and grey checkerboard. The checkerboard means that there is nothing there anymore. So when we go to save our image, only the graphic will be saved and nothing else.

Delete Your Background Selection

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Saving an Image as a PNG File

Once we are finished making our background transparent, we are ready to to save the image as a PNG file. Saving an image as a PNG in PhotoPad is very simple. Go to the File tab in the upper left hand corner of the program and then select the option Save As... You can also get there by simple pressing Ctrl + Shift + S on your keyboard. Change the Save as Type: from the drop-down menu to PNG (*.png) and then click Save.

Saving a file as a PNG

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Using Your PNG Image File

Now that we have successfully saved our graphic as a PNG file, it is ready for use on the web or in your next graphic design project. You will notice that when you preview the file on your computer,  the background is completely gone. This will remain the case wherever you choose to use your new PNG image. Drag it directly back into PhotoPad to place it on any other image or background you would like, or upload it to the web for seamless integration on your website.

Transparent PNG logos on photo backgrounds

Download PhotoPad for Windows

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How to Edit MP3 Tags and Metadata with Switch Audio Converter

Edit MP3 Metadata with Switch Audio Converter

How to Edit Metadata and Tags when Converting to MP3

When converting a track to MP3, you can edit the track metadata and tags to include title, artist, track artwork, producer, rating, genre, comments and more. If you record your own music, you may want to set up metadata and tags for your finished recordings before sharing. Editing your tags and metadata will ensure that your album artwork, artist name, and other tags show up correctly when your track is loaded into a new audio library. You can easily edit the metadata of MP3 and tags for audio files when converting with Switch Audio Converter.

Download Switch Tag Editor for Windows

Edit MP3 Tags

To edit the tags of an audio file, begin by loading the file into Switch Audio Converter. To import an audio file, click on the "Add Files" button in the top left hand corner of the program window.

After you have imported an audio file, you can right click on the file in Switch and select "Edit Audio Tags" to edit the audio tags.

This will open the Tag Editor for the selected audio file. Here, you can edit the audio track title, artist, album, genre, BPM, producer, rating, artwork, and more. For new recordings, many fields will be blank. If the audio file that you are converting currently has audio tags, the existing tags will be displayed in the Tag Editor.

To edit a tag, click on the field that you would like to edit and type in the new tag information that you would like to save for your mp3 file. You can edit the song Rating by clicking on the star value that you would like to assign to the audio file.

Add Artwork to an MP3 File

To add artwork to an MP3 file, click on the "Browse" button the the right of the artwork image in the Tag Editor. Then, select a file from your computer to use as the artwork for your audio file. 

Apply Changes

You can apply changes to converted files only, or you can apply changes to source files and converted files. To apply tag edits to converted files only, select the option that says "Apply changes to converted files only". This option will leave the file tags for the source file in their original state, while applying the tag edits to only converted files.

 To apply tag changes to the original source file as well as converted files, select the option that says "Apply changes to source files and converted files".

Convert to MP3 with New Tags

To convert your file to MP3 with the edited tags, click on the "Convert" button in the bottom right hand corner of the Switch program window.

Download Switch Tag Editor for Windows