Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > alt.comp.os.windows-11 > #18439 > unrolled thread

Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper

Back to article view | Back to alt.comp.os.windows-11

Contents

  Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Luca <luca@no.spam.invalid> - 2025-04-16 14:53 +0200
    Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper "Alan K." <alan@invalid.com> - 2025-04-16 08:59 -0400
      Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Luca <luca@no.spam.invalid> - 2025-04-16 15:09 +0200
    Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-16 10:00 -0400
      Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Luca <luca@no.spam.invalid> - 2025-04-16 16:12 +0200
        Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-16 12:48 -0400
      Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> - 2025-04-16 17:05 +0100
        Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-16 12:41 -0400
    Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-16 15:50 +0100
      Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Luca <luca@no.spam.invalid> - 2025-04-16 21:45 +0200
        Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-04-16 17:22 -0400
          Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Luca <luca@no.spam.invalid> - 2025-04-17 12:31 +0200
            Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-17 11:42 +0100
              Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-04-17 10:34 -0400
                Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-17 15:37 +0100
        Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-04-16 23:53 -0400
          Re: Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper Luca <luca@no.spam.invalid> - 2025-04-17 12:38 +0200

#18439 — Pictures with transparent background as a desktop wallpaper

Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
colour? 

I can only see the transparent background appear as a black one, so it looks
transparent only if black is selected as the desktop colour.

-- 
Luca - e-mail: p.stevens at libero.it

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#18441

On 4/16/25 08:53 AM, Luca wrote:
> 
> Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
> wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
> colour?
> 
> I can only see the transparent background appear as a black one, so it looks
> transparent only if black is selected as the desktop colour.
> 
What is the image format.  I suppose there are others, but PNG allows transparent.   JPG 
is not.

-- 
Linux Mint 22.1, Cinnamon 6.4.8,  Kernel 6.8.0-57-generic
Thunderbird 128.9.1esr, Mozilla Firefox 137.0.1
     Alan K.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18442

Alan K.:

> On 4/16/25 08:53 AM, Luca wrote:
> > 
> > Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
> > wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
> > colour?
> > 
> > I can only see the transparent background appear as a black one, so it looks
> > transparent only if black is selected as the desktop colour.
> > 
> What is the image format.  I suppose there are others, but PNG allows transparent.   JPG 
> is not.

I use png, but the problem is not in the image, I think. It's Windows that
assigns black as the colour of the desktop area covered by the image,
regardless of what colour is selected for the desktop background. So, the
transparency shows black and doesn't look transparent at all, unless the whole
desktop is black.

-- 
Luca - e-mail: p.stevens at libero.it

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18443

On 4/16/2025 8:53 AM, Luca wrote:
> 
> Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
> wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
> colour?
> 
> I can only see the transparent background appear as a black one, so it looks
> transparent only if black is selected as the desktop colour.
> 

    Maybe try replacing the transparent areas with the
color you want. I'm guessing that with a picture showing,
Windows specifies no color, so you see black, which is 0
in terms of color code.

   Interestingly, though, I had trouble with icon labels being
black. They looked ugly and were hard to read on my
sky background. I found that while there was no setting to
control black vs white, I was able to make the labels white
by first specifying a dark blue background before switching
to the picture. So... something seems to be a bit half-cooked
here.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18444

Newyana2:

> On 4/16/2025 8:53 AM, Luca wrote:
> > 
> > Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
> > wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
> > colour?
> > 
> > I can only see the transparent background appear as a black one, so it looks
> > transparent only if black is selected as the desktop colour.
> > 
> 
>     Maybe try replacing the transparent areas with the
> color you want. I'm guessing that with a picture showing,
> Windows specifies no color, so you see black, which is 0
> in terms of color code.

I can add that in the Windows settings tab, the preview image is correctly
rendered with the selected desktop colour visible under the transparent image
background, while on the desktop you see black under transparency.

-- 
Luca - e-mail: p.stevens at libero.it

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18448

On 4/16/2025 10:12 AM, Luca wrote:

> I can add that in the Windows settings tab, the preview image is correctly
> rendered with the selected desktop colour visible under the transparent image
> background, while on the desktop you see black under transparency.
> 

     Cold comfort if it doesn't translate to the Desktop. Though
it does seem odd that no one anticipated this problem. They
should have blocked PNGs or allowed an image background
color to show through. But don't hold your breath for a fix.
The Explorer GUI seems to always be treated as an afterthought.
Explorer folder settings have been broken since Win98 and MS
still don't fix them. They just screw them up differently with
each Windows version.

   It should be easy enough to replace transparent areas of your
PNG with a solid color, unless you have partial transparency in
some areas.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18446

On 2025-04-16 15:00, Newyana2 wrote:
> 
>    Interestingly, though, I had trouble with icon labels being
> black. They looked ugly and were hard to read on my
> sky background. I found that while there was no setting to
> control black vs white, I was able to make the labels white
> by first specifying a dark blue background before switching
> to the picture. So... something seems to be a bit half-cooked
> here.

Microsoft have been f*king up colour schemes since at least the W98/W2k 
era, and have never fixed the problems, which have carried over more or 
less unchanged into every version of Windows since.  Particularly, 
having a dark background or paper and a light foreground or pen tends 
not to work well, because so many dialog boxes, tooltips, etc, have been 
hard coded (bad enough!) inconsistently (much, much worse!):

https://www.macfh.co.uk/Test/ColourSchemesBugs.html

-- 

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website: 
www.macfh.co.uk

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18447

On 4/16/2025 12:05 PM, Java Jive wrote:
> On 2025-04-16 15:00, Newyana2 wrote:
>>
>>    Interestingly, though, I had trouble with icon labels being
>> black. They looked ugly and were hard to read on my
>> sky background. I found that while there was no setting to
>> control black vs white, I was able to make the labels white
>> by first specifying a dark blue background before switching
>> to the picture. So... something seems to be a bit half-cooked
>> here.
> 
> Microsoft have been f*king up colour schemes since at least the W98/W2k 
> era, and have never fixed the problems, which have carried over more or 
> less unchanged into every version of Windows since.  Particularly, 
> having a dark background or paper and a light foreground or pen tends 
> not to work well, because so many dialog boxes, tooltips, etc, have been 
> hard coded (bad enough!) inconsistently (much, much worse!):
> 
> https://www.macfh.co.uk/Test/ColourSchemesBugs.html
> 

    Win10/11 seem to have been more messed up than earlier
versions. There are less options and I still haven't figured
out the weird rules, like no option to choose taskbar
color with some themes... or something like that. I managed
to get things in a way I like well enough and settled for that.
I'd like to have an actual frame around windows, not just a
1-pixel line, but I can live with that.

   I wouldn't blame MS for problems with black/white reversal,
though. The fad of making all of Windows have a black
background is recent. For reasons I don't understand it's
apparently become very popular with geeks. Maybe it feels like
some kind of low-level operation to teenagers. They can
pretend they're characters in a spy movie, saving America
from the Russians or some such. (Most movies portray advanced
computing by showing DOS commands scrolling on a black
screen. :)
   But I don't consider it Microsoft's job to cater to such things.

   I'm still not clear how the newer settings are saved. The
old style settings that you show are still in the Registry, but
seem to have no effect. I guess I'm getting old. I no longer
care to figure all of these things out. I'm happy just to clean
up the mess, create a facsimile of Classic style, and kill all
the restrictions/notifications/nags. I'm much happier with 10/11
than I ever expected to be. Though I feel bad for the masses
who have no inkling that they don't have to put up with the
spying, forced updates, ads, etc.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18445

Luca wrote:

> Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
> wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
> colour?

If you've selected a background image, you can't set a background 
colour, can you?

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18449

Andy Burns:

> Luca wrote:
> 
> > Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
> > wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
> > colour?
> 
> If you've selected a background image, you can't set a background 
> colour, can you?
 

Yes we can. Background image (or folder for presentation) and background
colour are both to be selected.

-- 
Luca - e-mail: p.stevens at libero.it

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18450

On 4/16/2025 3:45 PM, Luca wrote:
> Andy Burns:
> 
>> Luca wrote:
>>
>>> Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
>>> wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
>>> colour?
>>
>> If you've selected a background image, you can't set a background
>> colour, can you?
>   
> 
> Yes we can. Background image (or folder for presentation) and background
> colour are both to be selected.
> 

    That's not actually true. You can choose picture, color,
OR slideshow. If you pick the color first then it may be
stored somewhere. But once you choose a picture you've
chosen that *instead* of a solid color. And as you said, it
doesn't work in practice. It should. It doesn't. That's that.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18454

Newyana2:

> On 4/16/2025 3:45 PM, Luca wrote:
> > Andy Burns:
> > 
> >> Luca wrote:
> >>
> >>> Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
> >>> wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
> >>> colour?
> >>
> >> If you've selected a background image, you can't set a background
> >> colour, can you?
> >   
> > 
> > Yes we can. Background image (or folder for presentation) and background
> > colour are both to be selected.
> > 
> 
>     That's not actually true. You can choose picture, color,
> OR slideshow. 

Nope. Here it's like I said, you get to choose this way: 

( (Picture OR Slideshow) AND background colour ) OR only background colour

You have to select "Adapt" or "Center" for pictures and slideshow to see this.

-- 
Luca - e-mail: p.stevens at libero.it

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18456

Luca wrote:

> Nope. Here it's like I said, you get to choose this way:
> 
> ( (Picture OR Slideshow) AND background colour ) OR only background colour
> 
> You have to select "Adapt" or "Center" for pictures and slideshow to see this.


OK, doing it that way (I hadn't considered non-full screen wallpapers) 
the preview thumbnail looks correct within the settings app, but the 
real effect is all sorts of corrupt bleed-through of the transparent 
parts of the image.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18460

On Thu, 4/17/2025 6:42 AM, Andy Burns wrote:
> Luca wrote:
> 
>> Nope. Here it's like I said, you get to choose this way:
>>
>> ( (Picture OR Slideshow) AND background colour ) OR only background colour
>>
>> You have to select "Adapt" or "Center" for pictures and slideshow to see this.
> 
> 
> OK, doing it that way (I hadn't considered non-full screen wallpapers) the preview thumbnail looks correct within the settings app, but the real effect is all sorts of corrupt bleed-through of the transparent parts of the image.
> 
> 

I started with this image:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNG#/media/File:PNG_transparency_demonstration_1.png

and so far, I've managed to make two representations.
A smeary one, and a black one.

   [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/d1pX5C2Q/png-effect-varies.gif

So far, none of my tools show what is going on.

Maybe pnglib doesn't even read these types properly ?

  Paul

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18461

Paul wrote:

> I started with this image:
> 
>     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNG#/media/ 
> File:PNG_transparency_demonstration_1.png
> 
> and so far, I've managed to make two representations.
> A smeary one, and a black one.
> 
>      https://i.postimg.cc/d1pX5C2Q/png-effect-varies.gif

You picked the same transparent image as I did, and go the same smeary 
bleed-through result I did (yet the preview thumbnail did work for me).

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18452

On Wed, 4/16/2025 3:45 PM, Luca wrote:
> Andy Burns:
> 
>> Luca wrote:
>>
>>> Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
>>> wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
>>> colour?
>>
>> If you've selected a background image, you can't set a background 
>> colour, can you?
>  
> 
> Yes we can. Background image (or folder for presentation) and background
> colour are both to be selected.
> 

Not even CoPilot would address your issue. The issue was avoided entirely,
as to the definition of transparency handling. As far as I'm concerned,
the black fill on your rendered desktop is "perfect". It's exactly what
should have happened from a graphics perspective. But that's a personal opinion,
based on how intuitive computers are.

An example of the primitive offered in older OSes, looks like this. Many people
try to write code in object oriented languages, only to find "boomer string definitions".
The OS at one time, was little better than assembler calls. Presumably the objective
in having crude handling like you've seen, is for backward compatibility with
any win32 code written with regard to this function.

   SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0, "C:\\1.jpg", SPIF_SENDCHANGE);

   std::string s = "C:\\1.jpg";
   SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0, (void*)s.c_str(), SPIF_SENDCHANGE);

Notice that the command makes absolutely no reference to graphics handling
issues or frippery. You get to specify a filename for the wallpaper, and that's it.
You'd need to ask Raymond Chen how that's handled, to find someone with enough
historical perspective to know how that was wedged in.

CoPilot says to use a third-party wallpaper manager, to achieve a desired effect.
On third-down, CoPilot punted.

So if you want a result, it looks like this:

    Arbitrary ==> User-controlled ==> folder of  ============> Slide show function
    folder of      image control      "cleaned,simple)
    images         and flattener       images
                  (assign and fill
                   transparency)

As an example of the arbitrary behavior of the Windows interface,
I tried to assign a solid color image to the login screen. The
file type was unsupported (apparently). I tried to feed it a .bmp !
Rather than throw an error and tell the user "this file type is unsupported",
the software absorbed my file pointer, and... the login screen was
a colorful solid black background. Which I have left, as a reminder of
just how clever computers are :-)

What has happened to you, is just a continuation of this policy.
Make a tactical error ? Get a "result". That is how it seems to work.

   Paul

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#18455

Paul:

> On Wed, 4/16/2025 3:45 PM, Luca wrote:
> > Andy Burns:
> > 
> >> Luca wrote:
> >>
> >>> Is it possible to select a picture with transparent backgraund as a desktop
> >>> wallpaper and actually see the transaparency with respect to the desktop
> >>> colour?
> >>
> >> If you've selected a background image, you can't set a background 
> >> colour, can you?
> >  
> > 
> > Yes we can. Background image (or folder for presentation) and background
> > colour are both to be selected.
> > 

> As far as I'm concerned,
> the black fill on your rendered desktop is "perfect". 

Sorry, I can't understand the technicality of your post. My dummy question is
how comes that the desktop preview in the settings tab - once I select an
image with transparent background and my preferred background colour - is
perfect as far as "I" am concerned, while the actual desktop result is
different. 

-- 
Luca - e-mail: p.stevens at libero.it

[toc] | [prev] | [standalone]

Back to top | Article view | alt.comp.os.windows-11

csiph-web