I am new to GIMP. Actually, new to any photo manipulating program. I am trying to make a photo transparent--the entire photo, that is, not just the background. I'm confused and keep finding instructions for fading (which is not what I want) or instructions for removing background. Maybe I'm using the wrong terminology, I don't know. I plan on using the photo as a backdrop for text. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

Open your image in Gimp

1. Give the image transparency, called an alpha channel, Layer menu -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel (if greyed-out it already exists)

2. Add a new layer, Layer -> New Layer Fill it with white (start off with white, experiment later with different colours/patterns)

3. Move your photo over that, easiest way, use the little arrows or click-n-drag.

4. With the photo layer **active**, ie. click on it in the layers dialogue (it will 'highlight'), move the **opacity** slider to a value that suits you.

5. For text, click on the text tool, click on the canvas, a text layer is created above the active layer.

edit: Hate this mailing list format.

If you plan on using the final image on say a web page.

You will not eventually need the bottom white layer, delete that as required.

Save your work as a Gimp xcf file which preserves all/any layers and settings.

When complete, Export the image as a .png file which flattens to a single layer but importantly preserves the transparency .

Other formats will lose transparency.

Well... so far, so good, but now I'm stuck. I'm stuck at #4 "With the photo layer "active" etc...
I can't seem to get to the opacity slider... everything was going smoothly until then. -:o

Yes, not easy for a beginner, Gimp has a steep learning curve.

One thing I suggest is, If you still have traditional Gimp three windows is enable single window mode.

Gimp menu Windows -> Single Window Mode, then we are on the same basis.

Otherwise it is click in that bar top of the layers dialogue and move the slider.

A very quick video demo about 2 mins https://youtu.be/GtPxrXeCegg

Any real problems you can always get me as below.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net

Hi Rich,

On 04/08/17 11:22, rich2005 wrote:

If you plan on using the final image on say a web page.

... then you would be better off to control the transparency in your web editor through CSS.

See:
https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_image_transparency.asp

Greg