Hello all,
I'm thinking of switching from TSU-7000's tp MX-3000's for my customers. I've been playing around with the MX-3000 software today, and it sure is diffrent than ProntoEdit. I'm not sure if I think it's better or not yet.

One thing I have a problem with is the backgrounds on all the icons I have created for the prontos. In pronto edit, you can select bitmap transparancy to match the corner colors of the Icons, and it seems like in the MX-3000 software that can't be done. Am I missing something here. This may be deciding factor for staying with the prontos or switching to the MX for me.

Thanks

Bitmaps don't have transperency and the method you describe is not a true transperency but effective unless you are overlaying a picture or such. The mx-3000 can use GIF's which can have a true transperency, the pronto can use PNG. Either way you can bring it into a photo editor and modify the bitmap background to be transparent and then save as a GIF or PNG. If you need the specific way to do it I can describe it for photoshop or image ready.

Bob

Hi Bob,
Yes, if you could walk me through it, that would be great.

I have Photoshop 5.0. What I am trying to do is take a button from ProntoPro Edit NG (bmp2835.jpg to be exact), and overlay it onto a waterlike pronto background (bmp2699.jpg).

1. Use the magic wand to select the background. If you need to select more area than initially selected use the shift key and select the other areas as well.

2. Select > inverse

3. Layer > New > Layer via Copy : this will create a new layer in the layer window. It is usually called layer 1. There should be two layers there now, background and layer 1.

4. Delete the background layer by right clicking on it and selecting delete layer. It will ask if you want to confirm the delete. Of course say yes. The picture should now show the transperency. This is shown by a B/W checkered pattern.

5. Save as a GIF or PNG and you are done.

Bob

Bob,

I've noticed that this method doesn't seem to work. Everytime you go to import the saved GIF you get a bitmap error message saying the colors are to high. I noticed the graphics are saved with an 8bit color channel. The problem i see is when you try to save it as 8bit you loose the color and quality of your GIF image.. Is there something else that has to be done in order to create a GIF image that will work correctly?

Hi Bob,
OK here's what I've got. I opened the .pgn in photoshop.

The first problem I have is the area below the button that is shaded is black, not a gradual fade when the button is opened. ( I converted th eimage to a gif an dopened it, and it looks OK, but I could not add a layer). I don't know if this is related to a setting in photoshop.

Magic wand > select> inverse> new layer>via copy>delete background worked fine, I got the checkerboard pattern.

Save a Copy. For some reason, .gif is not an option for saving. I saved as a >jpeg, and a .png, then opened them using Microsoft picture it, and saved as a .gif.

Selected the .gif in MX-editor, and the edges were white.

I think I'm close, but still missing something. I didn't get any bitmap errors, as mdroschak did.

Thanks so much for the help.

You have to have something selected to add a layer. I'm not sure if this is the problem.

GIF may not be an option in Photoshop 5.0. Sometimes you save it as a web and it might have the option of GIF. If you have image ready which ships with photoshop you should have it, unless they just started that with version 6.

If you are getting white edges the magic wand parameters are not set ideally for your purpose. I would play with the settings. The other thing you can do is after you hit inverse use --- select>modify>contract and contract by one or two pixels and that should work fine.

GIF's are only 8 bit and not good to use with pictures, etc. I have a feeling this is the bitmap error.

Bob


Bob

OK, I think I know what's going on, but I don't know how to fix it.

I can't save an image as a .gif if it has rgb color selected.

I can save as a .gif if I change it to indexed color, but then I can't add a layer.

The magic wand is working fine, and when I view the image in photoshop, the background is transparent, but when sent to the MX software, it looks like it has the orig. problem.

Could it be a setting in the MX software that I have overlooked?

Ok I think I figured it out. For anyone else out there trying to do this: Photoshop 5.0

Follow bob's instructions

But don't save with Save as or Save a Copy.

save via File>Export>Gif89a Export.

It Works!

Thanks Bob, Your the MAN!

There are some important restrictions to be aware of with GIF.

First, the format supports only 256 colors. That means that to get a look approximating 24-bit color, I created all of the template graphics (the ones that were GIFs anyway) with an adaptive 256-color palette. That means that the best 256 colors for the image are used, not just any old 256 colors.

Second, GIF transparency is Index transparency, not Alpha transparency. That means that with GIF, you define ONE color from the palette to be transparent. On the other hand, PNG can "feather" the edges of an image to transparency, or even make an image, say, 50% transparent. This has a great advantage in transparency, but, PNG does not support animation.

So it's kind of a trade off...

So what exactly is the bitmap error telling me? I'm trying to load a button i customized in photoshop 8.0cs but i get that error everytime i try to import it in... Everything is set correctly at least i believe it to be.... What's the max file size an gif image can be? Also can you use PNG files with this mx-3000?

EDIT: Ok, i figured out what was wrong. I didn't realize you can't export say a smaller button then try and import it on a diffrent page that has larger buttons. You need to import it back to the same page it came from then cut and paste it onto the page you want it on within the MX-3000 Editor program!!! Go Figure!!!

This message was edited by mdroschak on 08/23/04 16:02 ET.

Sorry, I misunderstood you before. I thought you were having trouble with importing into photoshop. When you import on to an already existing button on the 3000 it has to be the same size. The 3000's software doesn't do any scaling of graphics. If you create a new button and import onto the new button the 3000 will size it to the imported graphic's size.

Bob

FYI.
I spoke with a tech at home theater master today, and he said they were working on supporting .png, as well as having the ability to use raw hex IR codes in the MX editor. Hooray!

That's awesome news!

Thanks for the great info! :D

You'll be happy to know that the source files for the MX 3000 templates are such that they can easily be altered to producce PNG files instead of GIF and BMP.