Creating toolbars

Tuesday, April 27, 2004 by TYBSP | Discussion: Skinning

Can someone give me some info for creating toolbars. It seems that there is a mask of some sort that prohibits different shapes other than the stock toolbar images. For instance if I create a new house for "HOME" on the stock Internet toolbar, the only part of my new image that shows is the part that is in the image shape of the original toolbar house shape.(does that make sense?)
2 Reply 2 Referrals
PixelPirate
Reply #1 Tuesday, April 27, 2004 1:53 PM
The toolbar icons have to be targa images (*.tga). If you want a tga to be transparent you have to have an Alpha Channel that defines the visible and the transparent areas. The one you''re editing has the original alpha channel in it, so you have to make a new one. In Photoshop you can view the alpha channel in the Channels tab next to the Layers tab. To make a new alpha channel, discard the old one, make a s-electio-n of your icons, go into channels and make a new channel. It''s completely black now, but you just have to fill it with white and it''s set. The white areas define the visible parts and the black the transparent parts. The great thing about the tga format is that it allows for smoother edges than a bmp with "hard" edges using magic pink. It''s also great to use for menu buttons, start button and taskbar buttons to name a few.
[Message Edited]

TYBSP
Reply #2 Tuesday, April 27, 2004 9:54 PM
Exactly what I was looking for. Thanx so much. I havent worked with tga's much and didnt know the nature of the format.

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