odd nose art transparency problem

[sullie363]

So I've spent the past few hours banging my head against the wall trying to get a transparent background for a new nose art i'm making.  I know that 176, 176, 176 is the transparent color but that's not where the problem is.  In a few different programs now I have tried to make the background 176, 176, 176.  I enter in those numbers, it produces the desired color, I fill in the background and save it.  But for some reason it always changes to some other shade of gray all by itself.  Like I'll enter 176, 176, 176, then go back and check it and it has changed to 179, 179, 178.  Something so simple and yet every method I try to apply the correct color keeps resulting in it changing itself.  This issue happens with all colors by the way, no matter what I enter it keeps being changed ever so slightly. 

[Blammo]

What program are you using?  It sounds like it is controlling the pallete instead of giving you control (I know, duh).  I use Paint Shop Pro and have also used Photoshop.  The only time I ever had one of those programs do that is if I did something like "optimize pallete" or had it in high color and after setting the  176,176,176 color reduced the pallete to 256.

[kilz]

i use Photo Shop Pro and never had a problem with it.

[sullie363]

I started with simple old Paint and then tried to correct the issue with Print Shop with no luck.  I've found though this only happens once it's saved in 256, as long as it's in 24 bit for example, the colors stay the same like they should.

[sullie363]

Well could I ask a favor then for someone to take a minute and convert this into the required nose art format?

[Chalenge]

The color has to be added to the images color palette before you can make that color a permanent part of the image.

[NHawk]

Sullie...

Open the .png in Photoshop

Click Image
Highlight Mode
Click Indexed Color

In the window that pops up make sure the palette is set to "Local (Selective)"
Colors 256
Forced Black and White
Transparency Checked
Dither Diffusion
Amount 75%
Preserve Exact Colors = Checked

Click OK

Save as BMP

That should do it.

[sullie363]

Sorry to say I don't have photoshop, I have it's neglected younger brother print shop.

[sullie363]

Okay problem solved.  I opened an existing nose art from the game then pasted mine onto it and the color was what I wanted.