How to make an image have Transparent Background Color?

[wizzz]

I'm trying to make an image have no background color at all.
So in Paint Shop Pro I'm trying to make the background color as transparent color. This works fine except when I save it as gif, the transparency disappears.

So anybody know how to make an image have transparent background color?
(either in paint shop pro or photoshop)

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Bozo Galora]

"To keep a background transparent"

To import a Photoshop image into a drawing or page layout applications and maintain its transparent background, save the image with a clipping patch.

1.Create a path around the portion of the image that you want to keep.
2.Save the path and keep it active
3.Choose clipping path from the clipping paths palette command menu
4.Choose the path name from the path drop down menu
5.Enter a number in the flatness field or leave this field blank to use the printers default setting. 8/9/10 is high res printing, 1/2/3 is low.
6.Click OK
7.Save the document in the Photoshop EPS format. When you open or import into another application, only the area inside clipping will display (and print)

also:
when opening a new image file you can-
click contents:white or background or transparent
this will make the background transparent and automatically create a separate layer. you can then place/modify your other images on other separate layers
however only photoshop file format can export layered files.
to export to other apps or platforms you must first "flatten" images together and use a different format like TIFF or JPEG

 

[RaoulDuke]

that's a lot of steps, it's pretty easy in photoshop.

if you have 6 you can just save for web and do transparency in there quite easily.