Using the image below, aardvark1.gif, create two copies of it. One as a jpg with a background color other than white that matches a web page background. Another as a gif with a transparent background. See discussion below.

Using MS Paint and MS Photo Editor for setting backgrounds to be transparent

Started out with aardvark1.gif (graphic above)

White background on image, white also on image.

Want to make background transparent, so need to change image background color.

Photo Editor doesn't do "flood fill."

In Microsoft Photo Editor Change to .bmp file.

In MS Paint Did a flood fill.

Two Options at this point, option 1:

Do a flood fill to the background color of the page and save it as a jpg.

If it is a color back ground you could use huey to find out the hex and decimal color value.

Use the decimal color value in the graphics editor to create a fill color.

Use the hex color value to set the background in the head tag.

Advantages of this method:

If the file is a jpg, you maintain your 16.7M color resolution.

Disadvantage of this method:

The background color is one static color.

Option 2:

Do a flood fill to the background color of the page and save it as a .gif

Create transparent areas in an image

You can use transparent areas to integrate an image into your document, presentation, or Web page. For instance, if you have an image of a person with a plain background, such as the sky or a wall, you can make the background color transparent. When the image is printed in a Word document, the background will have the color of the paper. In a PowerPoint presentation or Web page, the transparent area will have the color of the background.

On the Standard toolbar, click Set Transparent

Position the tool over the color you want to make transparent, and click.

The Change Color to Transparent dialog box appears.

The preview window shows the color that will change to transparent when you click OK. You can modify the options to increase the range of colors that will become transparent or to change the degree of transparency.

For Help on an option, click the question mark and then click the option.

Setting a gif as a transparent in Lview ...

File/Properties/GIF Use this dialog to set preferences on creating GIF files. Options are:

When saving an image to a disk file using the GIF89a format, the background color that is currently selected may be stored as the GIF's transparent color. Check the help topic File/Properties/GIF for more information.

Save Transparent Color Information to GIF89a Files: If checked, will use the palette entry chosen as background color, on the dialog Retouch/Background Color, as the transparent color record on GIF89a files.

From Menu >>> Choose >>

Retouch >> Background color

>> Choose color you want to be transparent

>> Save the file as a *.gif89a

The image below, aardvark3.gif, is a transparent gif.