I have a project that I am printing to transparent adhesive stickers. My text and images are various solid opaque colors as desired. The rest of the image background has been transparent so the color of the surface that I am applying the stickers too shows through. Now I need a version where there is a solid off white background color in the bottom most layer so that the underlying object color is completely obscured. So far all I can produce is a translucent background color.
Hello. Beg your pardon but I'm not sure what you're working with. There are no layers in the PDF attachment; it's only a flat image. It would be helpful if you could upload your GIMP XCF file.
Several approaches may work for what you need.
Using a copied image from the PDF, you could use the COLORS - CURVES function to change the light red background color to white to match the background of the image at the bottom left. No masking, selections or painting are necessary for this.
Open the CURVES menu and slide the top right corner point along the top toward the left until the whites match. The INPUT value is about 220 and the OUTPUT is 255.
How easy it is or isn't to change the white to something else depends on what you're actually working with.
As neurolurker said, it would have been better if you had attached your xcf file.
Attached is a suggestion of how your xcf file should be structured. Have a look at the layers. The background can easily be changed - transparent, white, or any other colour.
I will try to explain my issue again. This is one of a series of labels/stickers that all look similar and are printed on clear transparent adhesive label sheets. They are applied to metal boxes that are powder coated with various colors. The first few labels were very successful and look good. The border, text and running man were all colored and totally solid/opaque so that the color of the metal box was completely covered/obscured by those images and the rest of the box color can be seen through the rest of the label field/background. I have attached an image of one of those first successful labels.
Now I need the whole label to have a solid off white background out past the border to the background perimeter so that none of the box color shows through. I tried adding a separate layer for color and I tried applying a color to the background layer and I get color but its translucent and I can partially still see through it which is not what I want.
10-05-2019, 07:17 AM (This post was last modified: 10-05-2019, 07:50 AM by Blighty.)
(10-04-2019, 07:17 PM)GeorgeG Wrote: Attached is my xcf file
Not much wrong with the xcf file. I did notice that:
1) the running man is on a white background. Do Colors > Color To Alpha on that layer.
2) the running man is on 2 layers ("running man" and "Knobs"). Delete from the "Knobs" layer.
Your backgrounds look fine in the xcf. 100% opaque. I suspect the translucent effect is in the printing process (printing a colour on transparency) and not in the xcf file. You will need to look at the printing process to see if anything can be done there.
Edit: Perhaps try printing on opaque white rather than transparent film.
10-05-2019, 10:08 AM (This post was last modified: 10-05-2019, 10:12 AM by rich2005.)
Blighty's Edit is probably the solution.
If printing at home with a regular colour printer ( inkjet or laser) there is no white ink. Usually the three colours cyan, magenta, yellow + black. White = empty space and takes whatever colour the printing medium is. White paper = white. A transparency = transparent.
Seiko do (did?) make some very expensive inkjets with white ink for art work. There might be some dye-sublimination printer around that prints white. What you probably need to do is find some white printable adhesive film or look at some sort on screen-printing a white background on the transparency prior to colour printing.
Looking at your screenshot, it is the sort of device that has whole design screenprinted in the first place.
I will order and try some gloss white sticker paper.
Regarding my clear sticker paper problem, lets say that i am willing to live with whatever background color my printer is capable of. why is the text and running man completely solid/opaque and my background color is translucent and not solid like I would like it?
(10-05-2019, 07:22 PM)GeorgeG Wrote: why is the text and running man completely solid/opaque and my background color is translucent and not solid like I would like it?
As Rich said:
"If printing at home with a regular colour printer ( inkjet or laser) there is no white ink. Usually the three colours cyan, magenta, yellow + black. White = empty space and takes whatever colour the printing medium is. White paper = white. A transparency = transparent."
When printing there is no white ink. When you are printing on white paper and need a white colour no ink is put on the paper. It then shows white. In other words, white is treated as transparent by the printer.
You are printing a very light colour (off-white) on transparent sticker paper. Very little ink is being put on the paper, so it shows as semi-transparent.
