Sharper Weeks
Registered User
Join date: 12 May 2006
Posts: 5
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09-26-2006 07:45
Hi all,
First off, i have searched and read through other threads on the forums, but the only ones that might help now link to website that no longer exist, so i'm sorry if this sounds like a questions you've heard before.
Specifically the problem is that i used to create Alpha Targa files on a PC version of CS2, but now trying to do the same on CS1 on a Mac Pro, all the files generated no longer have alpha once uploaded to SL.
This same problem occured on the PC originally, but it was fixed 6 months or so ago by a post on these forums linking to a older Targa Plugin for Photoshop that didn't have the export problem the current one has.
I put this file into the Plugin folder for CS on the Mac, but now every file uploaded is 100% Alpha. This is just as bad.
So! Mac Photoshop CS users, i know you're out there and creating Targas with Alpha - can you PLEASE PLEASE give a step by step or a link to a file i can use to replace my current one!?
Just for clarification, this is the setup:
Mac Pro (2 x 2.0GHz Xeon) 2GB RAM OSX 10.4 Tiger Photoshop CS1 running under Rosetta Output: Targa file with Alpha section.
To create the Alpha sections i am doing as i did before, deleting a section to make it transparent and saving as a 32bit Targa.
Many thanks!
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Chosen Few
Alpha Channel Slave
Join date: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 7,496
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09-26-2006 08:09
Hi Sharper. It sounds like you've borked your Photoshop's ability to create alpha channels properly by installing that gawd-awful plugin from Photoshop 7.0. I'm pretty sure I know exactly what thread you're referring to, and for what it's worth, you could have saved yourself a lot of problems had you read my replies to it. I really wish that thread had never appeared on this forum, and more importantly, I wish that plugin had never existed (as does most of the graphics community). Don't ever use that plugin, ever. What that plugin does is it creates what's known as an "embedded alpha", a unique file element that Adobe experimented with for a very brief time. Embedded alphas are imcompatable with almost all graphics applications. SL can read them only by a miricle of chance, as it happened to have been under initial development during the short time that PS 7.0 was current. After receiving thousands upon thousands of complaints about embedded alphas from their customers, Adobe quickly abandoned the experiment, and patched Photoshop to return it to normal. Since Adobe wasn't continuing in their failed efforts, no one else bothered to build support for those unique files, and as a result, they're pretty much useless (if not downright problematic, in some cases almost virus-like) in all but a very few programs. To solve your problem, there are two things you need to do. The first is really easy; remove that plugin and replace it with a functional one (I'll tell you how in a minute). The second takes a little more effort on your part; learn to use real alpha channels. You'll never ever have compatibility issues with real alphas, but you'll almost always have them with embedded alphas (not to mention numerous other problems that you may or may not have encountered yet, but you most certainly will sooner or later.) To replace your Targa plugin, do the following: - Go to the downloads section of adobe.com, and grab the Targa plugin fix for Photoshop 7.
- Make sure Photoshop is not running. Go to the folder where you had previously put that other TGA plugin (I'm not sure off hand exactly where it is on the Mac but you must since you've been to it before), and delete it.
- Replace the other plugin with the new good plugin from Adobe. Restart Photoshop, and you should be okay.
If the above doesn't work, then simply uninstall and reinstall Photoshop. That will take care of it. As for learing to use real alpha channels instead of embedded alphas, it's really easy, but it will take a little getting used to. Read through the Transparency Guide at the top of this forum, and if you have any questions, let me know.  Good luck.
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