How to resolve PNG Snapshots no longer providing transparency

thecantina223

Newbie Joined: Feb 16, 2014 20:35 Messages: 2 Offline

Solved by

Feb 17, 2018 22:09

So I just upgraded from PD14 today to 16 and quickly discovered that when I take a PNG snapshot of an image with a transparent background the snapshot will be entirely black rather than maintain the transparency. Is there anyway to resolve this issue? It was an extremely useful tool in the previous version and it is very disheartening to see it missing. Especially since the feature to take snapshots at original file size also appears to have been removed.

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Feb 18, 2018 08:54

Quote So I just upgraded from PD14 today to 16 and quickly discovered that when I take a PNG snapshot of an image with a transparent background the snapshot will be entirely black rather than maintain the transparency. Is there anyway to resolve this issue? It was an extremely useful tool in the previous version and it is very disheartening to see it missing. Especially since the feature to take snapshots at original file size also appears to have been removed.

In some versions of PowerDirector, the Black background is the transparent background.

Try this, put a image or video on Track 1 of the timeline, then put that PNG image on Track 2 of the timeline below the image on Track 1.

Is the PNG image transparent? Does the image on track 1 shows through? Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

thecantina223

Newbie Joined: Feb 16, 2014 20:35 Messages: 2 Offline

Feb 19, 2018 19:57

Quote

Quote So I just upgraded from PD14 today to 16 and quickly discovered that when I take a PNG snapshot of an image with a transparent background the snapshot will be entirely black rather than maintain the transparency. Is there anyway to resolve this issue? It was an extremely useful tool in the previous version and it is very disheartening to see it missing. Especially since the feature to take snapshots at original file size also appears to have been removed.

In some versions of PowerDirector, the Black background is the transparent background.

Try this, put a image or video on Track 1 of the timeline, then put that PNG image on Track 2 of the timeline below the image on Track 1.

Is the PNG image transparent? Does the image on track 1 shows through?

Thank you for the repy. so images with a transparent backgrounds themselves do still work, however in powerdirector 14 I was able to take a snapshot of an image with a transparent background and save it as a PNG and any empty space in the snapshot was considered transparent. I am no longer able to do that in powerdirector 16. Is there another way of taking a snapshot that maintains the transparency or is this feature no longer present?

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Feb 20, 2018 11:41

Hi thecantina223 -

The short answer is no

I share your loss. It's a feature I used a lot in previous versions of PDR (before 15) & I miss it.

2 workarounds:

Take the snapshot in PDR16, then open the image in other software to make the black transparent.

If available, take the snapshot in PDR14 or earlier & import it into your PDR16 project.

That's all I can suggest, sorry.

Cheers - Tony
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