Transparency vs Opacity

[AlwaysOptimistic]

Hi there,

New user so please forgive the basic nature of this question.

I'm trying to make a colored jpg transparent - as in see-through

Everything I read directs me to opacity - but when I make things less opaque (lower % opacity), all this does is sort of "lighten" the color. It doesn't make it transparent.

Can someone please give me guidance as to how to make the color transparent - as in "see through"

I'm trying to make an overlay graphic to lay on top of a photo - to use as a YouTube Thumbnail

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Aurelija]

Hey there! Does the project you're working on have more than one layer? If it has a light-colored layer below your image layer, the lighter color will start to see through as you make the image layer more transparent. In this case, you'd have to hide the background layer before exporting to keep transparency. Also, it's important to export the image to the file format that supports transparency (say, PNG or TIFF, for instance). Let me know how it goes!

[AlwaysOptimistic]

Thanks Aurelija - exporting as PNG definitely helped! (not JPG)

How would I hide the background layer?

Thanks a bunch for your help!

[Aurelija]

If exporting to PNG helped, there probably isn't any background layer in your document. Normally, you'd hover your mouse over the layer you'd like to hide in the Layers sidebar, then toggle the visibility icon.

[AlwaysOptimistic]

Great, thank you!

[Aurelija]

Great, thank you!