Semi-transparent foreground image on top of opaque background image

The client has sent me this image (a low-res .jpg file) to place on top of a green gradient background (also provided, as a multi-layered .psd file). I'm to silhouette the image and place it on top of the green background at the appropriate size (easy) while maintaining the transparency of the grid and the reflection so that the green shows through (difficult ... as in I don't know how and haven't been able to Google up the answer). The end result will be used on the client's Website.
I considered telling him it couldn't be done (not sure if that's true) or would be cost prohibitive (I would need to be able explain why it would take me longer to do than he thinks it should take). The third (and most desirable) alternative is that this is easier to do than I realize and I just need to be pointed to the proper instructions.
Any advice?
Thanks,
Andrea

Put the gradient in photoshop and also convert the jpg to .psd in same colour profile as gradient, then place graphic into gradient as a layer on top. Set graphic to 'multiply'. That is technically the way to do it.
This will not look good, so you will want to isolate the blue bars of the graph and the arrow using 'select colour range' (and maybe some manual selection) then do 'command-j' to create another layer containing only those items and leave that as 'normal' (ie don't multiply that one) and it should look fine.
There is no way to silhouette the fading part into the gradient, it must overlay. Lifting the bars out is cheating a bit but will give nice appearance.
Should only take a few mins, make sure your gradient has some noise in it if you have any problems, I would be happy to do it for you if you want to send files to my email in profile....

Similar Messages

Getting a semi-transparent graphic onto a spot plate in InDesign CS6

I'm struggling to get elements of a design onto the fifth colour plate in my InDesign file. Example is shown below. I have made a number of rough-edged strips that retain an element of semi-transparency along their edges (so that the background shows through slightly and gives a brushed/painted on effect). The client needs these elements to be on a fifth plate, Pantone 1385.
I have tried making the graphic as a greyscale psd and as a greyscale tiff with transparency included, but I can't seem to select within InDesign using the content tool and making it on the fifth plate in my ID palette.
Have done it as a CMYK psd for time being on example below just to allow me to show the client as a visual.
Can anyone help me? I have also (briefly) explored channels in Photoshop as well but can't make and headway there too. Is there a simple solution?
Many thanks for any advice.

Thanks for reply, but I think this loses me all transparency?
Make your grayscale file a transparent Monotone like this:
In ID fill the background of the image frame with black:

Using a fake semi-transparency - what's really possible?

Hi,
I'm just now moving into DW CS4 (from cs3) and I'm on an intel iMac. I'm trying to make a table background that is semi-transparent while KEEPING text and photos 100% opaque. I'm already familiar with this kind of code: (just improvising here):
.tableMain {
background: transparent;
filter=alpha(opacity=50);
opacity=.5
But this makes EVERYTHING semi-transparent - content and all. I'd love to know if it is possible to keep the content fully in view.
I've tried making a semi-transparent GIF or PNG background in Photoshop CS4 and using it for the table background, but that doesn't seem to work.
I did discover this (perhaps unique to my site) solution for a fake semi-transparency: Since I've got a gradient background on my site (see www.frankbright.com/History.htm ), I took a 'Screen Snapshot' of the background, from the bottom of the navigation to as far down as I could go. Then I used PS CS4 to expand the canvas and color down to cover my long pages. (See Jazz Links)
Then I used PS levels to darken the snapshot very slightly, so as to intimate a gray semi-transparent effect. Then I simply used that snapshot as the table background.
This looks better on the long, clearer pages that have only text content. With the index3 home page, however, you don't sense the semi-transparent effect I'm going for as much.
I've also noticed the 'Extensions' area of the CSS interface in DW - does this have anything to do with what I'm trying to do?
Anyways, I'm open to ideas, if anyone could suggest any.
Many Thanks, Frank B.

Hi
You did not say what the problem was.
others viewing this thread. please read -
As for the colors of the background gradient using IEFilters, (for those who did not know on the forum, the IEFilter for background gradient was available since IE4.5, circa 1996, and all filters since IE5, circa 1998) you will need to adjust these as required. Luckily enough most background gradients go from one color to white or a lighter color of the starting color.
For FF and Safari see - http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/11/css-gradients-firefox-36/, http://webkit.org/blog/175/introducing-css-gradients/.
Google Chrome uses the webkit declaration, but unfortunately Opera does not support the feature, (use a standard background color at the beginning of the declaration) and FF only from version 3.6. But with the upgrading for FF users normally being 70+% within 6 months, this does mean that 85% of users will support the background gradient.
PZ
Edit: If you are using a css reset then it may be worth placing the position: relative; statement in this, as these normally include all the elements from H1 to pre.
Message was edited by: pziecina

How to make picture in picture video semi transparent?

I do know how to make picture in picture semi transparent if I import a photo instead of a video. However, if I import an video and want that video to be semi transparent at the right top cornor, I can do so with imovie? I know I can make the second video semi transparent if I use cutaway instead of picture in picture. However, I do not want the second video fill the whole screen, just the right cornor of the whole video.
Please reply if you know how to do it in imovie. Thank you

renaixbf wrote:
... video to be semi transparent at the right top cornor, … I can make the second video semi transparent if I use cutaway ... I do not want the second video fill the whole screen, just the right cornor of the whole video.
your wording confuses me ... what exactly do you want to accomplish:
a cut-away replaces video, but keeps audio - that has nothing to do with 'transparency' (??)
for sure, you can place and resize a PiP anywhere on the screen (pic#1)
or, do you mean by 'semi-transparent' keying a PiP? (pic#2) A color-key within a PiP is not optional in iMovie; although, I tested it: if your source video contains 'alpha transparency', iMovie support that either.
https://sites.google.com/site/karstenschluter/im09-counter
or, do you want to manually change the compositing mode (pic#3)? That, indeed is not optional in iMovie.
or, did you mean by 'just a part' cropping a PiP/second layer (pic#4)? Again, not optional in iMovie, complex compositing effects are habitat of professional tools such as FCPX.

An Image JPanel, A semi-transparent JPanel, and non-opaque components

This is a more intelligent re-asking of the question I posed here: http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=579298&tstart=50.
I have a class called ImagePane, which is basically a JPanel with an image background. The code is much like the ImagePanel posted by camickr, discussed in this topic: http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=57&threadID=316074 (except mine only draws the image, it does not tile or scale it).
On top of my ImagePane, I can place another component, TransparentContainer. This again extends JPanel, only a color is specified in the constructor, and it is drawn at about 70% opacity. This component is meant to help increase the readability of text components that blend with the background image, without blocking out the background image completely.
This works very well, until I need to add a component, like, say, a non-opaque JRadioButton in a ButtonGroup. When you select a new JRadioButton at runtime, the semi-transparent JPanel fills with a combination of a completely opaque color (the one specifies to the TransparentContainer) and garbage from the non-opaque component being redrawn.
I have noticed that the UI is restored to being non-messed up if you place another application window on top of it and then move it. So apparently, one solution is to redraw the entire UI, or just the part that has the JRadioButton on it, every time the radio button is clicked. However, this seems unnecessarily complicated. It seems to me that I am missing something in my TransparentContainer's paintComponent() method. Does anyone have any ideas?
Here is my TransparentContainer code, if it will help:
import java.awt.AlphaComposite;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
public final class TransparentContainer extends JPanel
     /* Private Fields: For use only by this class.
      * These fields hold information needed by more
      * than one method of this class.
     private boolean fullTransparencyEnabled;
     private Color baseColor;
     private Color outerBorderColor;
     private Color innerBorderColor;
     private int obw;
     private int ibw;
     private int cbw;
     /* -- START OF METHODS -- */
     /* public TransparentContainer(Color color, boolean fullTrans)
      *   Initiallizes the transparent container object
      *   with 'color' as its base color.
     public TransparentContainer(Color color, boolean fullTrans)
          fullTransparencyEnabled = fullTrans;
          baseColor = color;
          Color borders[] = findBorderColors();
          outerBorderColor = borders[0];
          innerBorderColor = borders[1];
          obw = 3;
          ibw = 1;
          cbw = obw + ibw;
     /* private Color[] findBorderColors(Color base)
      *   Calculates the colors for the outer and inner
      *   borders of the object based on the base color.
     private Color[] findBorderColors()
          Color borders[] = new Color[2];
          int colorData[] = new int[9];
          colorData[0] = getBaseColor().getRed();
          colorData[1] = getBaseColor().getGreen();
          colorData[2] = getBaseColor().getBlue();
          colorData[3] = colorData[0] - 50;          // outerBorder red
          colorData[4] = colorData[1] - 45;          // outerBorder green
          colorData[5] = colorData[2] - 35;          // outerBorder blue
          colorData[6] = colorData[0] + 30;          // innerBorder red
          colorData[7] = colorData[1] + 30;          // innerBorder green
          colorData[8] = colorData[2] + 20;          // innerBorder blue
          /* Make sure the new color data is not out of bounds: */
          for (int i = 3; i < colorData.length; i++)
               if (colorData[i] > 255)
                    colorData[i] = 255;
               else if (colorData[i] < 0)
                    colorData[i] = 0;
          borders[0] = new Color(colorData[3], colorData[4], colorData[5]);
          borders[1] = new Color(colorData[6], colorData[7], colorData[8]);
          return borders;
     /* public Color getBaseColor()
      *   Returns the baseColor of this object.
     public Color getBaseColor()
          return baseColor;
     /* public Color getOuterColor()
      *   Returns the outerBorderColor of this object.
     public Color getOuterColor()
          return outerBorderColor;
     /* public Color getInnerColor()
      *   Returns the innerBorderColor of this object.
     public Color getInnerColor()
          return innerBorderColor;
     /* public boolean getFullTransEnabled()
      *   Returns whether or not this object will render
      *   with all of its transparency effects.
     public boolean getFullTransEnabled()
          return fullTransparencyEnabled;
     /* protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
      *   Paints the component with the borders and colors
      *   that were set up in above methods.
     protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
          Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
          AlphaComposite alphaComp;
          g2d.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
          g2d.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_COLOR_RENDERING, RenderingHints.VALUE_COLOR_RENDER_QUALITY);
          g2d.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ALPHA_INTERPOLATION,
                                        RenderingHints.VALUE_ALPHA_INTERPOLATION_QUALITY);
          g2d.setColor(getBaseColor());
          /* Draw the main body of the component */
          if (getFullTransEnabled())
               alphaComp = AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 0.6f);
               g2d.setComposite(alphaComp);
          else
               alphaComp = AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 1.0f);
               g2d.setComposite(alphaComp);
          g2d.fillRect(cbw, cbw, super.getWidth() - 2 * cbw, super.getHeight() - 2 * cbw);
          alphaComp = AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 0.6f);
          g2d.setComposite(alphaComp);
          /* Draw the inner border: */
          g2d.setColor(getInnerColor());
          g2d.fillRect(obw, obw, ibw, super.getHeight() - obw * 2); // left border
          g2d.fillRect(obw, obw, super.getWidth() - obw, ibw); // top border
          g2d.fillRect(super.getWidth() - cbw, obw, ibw, super.getHeight() - obw * 2); // right border
          g2d.fillRect(obw, super.getHeight() - cbw, super.getWidth() - obw * 2, ibw); // bottom border
          /* Draw the outer border: */
          g2d.setColor(getOuterColor());
          g2d.fillRect(0, 0, obw, super.getHeight()); // left border
          g2d.fillRect(0, 0, super.getWidth() + obw, obw); // top border
          g2d.fillRect(super.getWidth() - obw, 0, obw, super.getHeight()); // right border
          g2d.fillRect(0, super.getHeight() - obw, super.getWidth(), obw); // bottom border
          alphaComp = AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 1.0f);
          g2d.setComposite(alphaComp);
          g2d.dispose();
}

I added the main method to your TransparentContainer class ...
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          JFrame f = new JFrame("test transparent container");
          f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          TransparentContainer tc = new TransparentContainer(Color.RED, true);
          JLabel label = new JLabel("Hello, World!");
          tc.add(label);
          f.getContentPane().add(tc);
          f.setSize(800, 600);
          f.setVisible(true);
     }...using the code you posted the label was not shown. I modified your paintComponent(Graphics g) method and I did this (see the areas in bold):
     /* protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
      *   Paints the component with the borders and colors
      *   that were set up in above methods.
     protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
          // Call super so components added to this panel are visible
          super.paintComponent(g);
          Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
          AlphaComposite alphaComp;
          g2d.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
          g2d.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_COLOR_RENDERING, RenderingHints.VALUE_COLOR_RENDER_QUALITY);
          g2d.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ALPHA_INTERPOLATION,
                                        RenderingHints.VALUE_ALPHA_INTERPOLATION_QUALITY);
          g2d.setColor(getBaseColor());
          /* Draw the main body of the component */
          if (getFullTransEnabled())
               alphaComp = AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 0.6f);
               g2d.setComposite(alphaComp);
          else
               alphaComp = AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 1.0f);
               g2d.setComposite(alphaComp);
          g2d.fillRect(cbw, cbw, super.getWidth() - 2 * cbw, super.getHeight() - 2 * cbw);
          alphaComp = AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 0.6f);
          g2d.setComposite(alphaComp);
          /* Draw the inner border: */
          g2d.setColor(getInnerColor());
          g2d.fillRect(obw, obw, ibw, super.getHeight() - obw * 2); // left border
          g2d.fillRect(obw, obw, super.getWidth() - obw, ibw); // top border
          g2d.fillRect(super.getWidth() - cbw, obw, ibw, super.getHeight() - obw * 2); // right border
          g2d.fillRect(obw, super.getHeight() - cbw, super.getWidth() - obw * 2, ibw); // bottom border
          /* Draw the outer border: */
          g2d.setColor(getOuterColor());
          g2d.fillRect(0, 0, obw, super.getHeight()); // left border
          g2d.fillRect(0, 0, super.getWidth() + obw, obw); // top border
          g2d.fillRect(super.getWidth() - obw, 0, obw, super.getHeight()); // right border
          g2d.fillRect(0, super.getHeight() - obw, super.getWidth(), obw); // bottom border
          alphaComp = AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 1.0f);
          g2d.setComposite(alphaComp);
          // Do not dispose the graphics
          // g2d.dispose();
     }...seems to work fine now. Perhaps you should also add methods or additional constructors so the user can easily change the transparency level...and add some javadoc comments to your constructors ...at a first glance I did not know what fullTrans was
public TransparentContainer(Color color, boolean fullTrans)good luck!!

Placing a semi-transparent area on top of a picture

CS3
I need to place some text on a photo, and to make it possible to read the text clearly, I want to place an area with a single colour on top of the picture - and the text on top of the are.
But how can I make this area semi transparent?
Thanks

There is also an action under Text Effects that does a semi-transparent panel for text.
Load the Text Effects actions into your actions panel and then make a selection for
the size of the text panel (rectangular marquee tool) before running the action. After
the action runs you can type your text inside the panel.
You can move the text layer and panel layer to a different part of the image by
selecting both layers and then using the move tool.
MTSTUNER

Semi transparent models, using a greyscale image

Hi,
Ive done a few searches on the forum for this. But couldnt
find a specific answer. With regards to textures with alpha
channels, and im not sure if im aiming in the right direction.
I want to have a semi transparent model, of a hair model
actually. I have a grayscale image, which is the alpha channel
information, and i have a number of textures of various hair
colours that work with this greyscale alpha jpg.
I'd like to assign the alpha channel jpg to textureList[1],
to ahieve transparency according to the greyscale image. then apply
the specific hair colour jpg to textureList[2].
Ive played around with blend, blendSource and blendConstant,
and I can get a bit of an effect(streaks in the girls hair), but
not the alpha channel effecting the visibility of the model effect
i'm after.
Is it possible to affect the visibility of a models polys,
through a greyscale texture/jpg being used for alpha channel
information? Is there another way, that ive missed?
Thanks in advance,
Glenno

You could even animate the alpha of the image using imaging
lingo. To set it on a single #fromImageObject texture you will need
to create two images, a 32 bit "host" image and an 8 bit grayscale
image. You can then use setAlpha() to apply the alpha information
to your host image and then create the texture using the 32 bit
imageobject (with the correct texturerenderformat). If either the
host imageobject is not 32 bit or the grayscale image not 8 bit the
setAlpha() operation will fail silently.

Glass effect - semi transparent image

Has anyone seen any tutorials or know how to make an image, say a rectangular image, into a coloured glass effect, semi transparent image.
I tend to use images as navigation links in sites and am looking at ways to jazz up the look.
I have had some helpful suggestions on making glass buttons but I'm not getting the hang of doing this with images.
Thank you.

Has anyone seen any tutorials or know how to make an image, say a rectangular image, into a coloured glass effect, semi transparent image.
I tend to use images as navigation links in sites and am looking at ways to jazz up the look.
I have had some helpful suggestions on making glass buttons but I'm not getting the hang of doing this with images.
Thank you.

Problem with opaque object/text showing as semi-transparent?

I didn't start seeing this problem till today, but the past couple of times I've gone to create a new shape layer or text layer, it appears like it's at 50% opacity. I've checked my layer settings, and they're all at 100% fill and opacity. I can't see any reason why they'd be semi-transparent, and none of the settings I've tried have changed anything. I've even tried deleting the shapes/text, saving my document, and starting over. That worked one time, but this time it's not working.
Even applying a color overlay still results in a semi-transparent shape.
Anyone else have a similar issue and know how to fix it? I am in the middle of doing a design for a client, for print, and I really can't be dealing with this right now.

I ended up just deleting the group that was affected, saving it as a new file, and then rebuilding the new group from the new file. For some reason that worked. I am not currently have the problem, so I can't show you what was happening, but I'll definitely look at these steps if it happens again.
Thanks!
Brooke

How to make the top bar opaque as it's hard to read transparent background.

The transparent bar at the top of the browser is terrible to read and is distracting. I want to get rid of it. How?

Hi,
please have a look at skinning
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E15523_01/apirefs.1111/e15862/toc.htm
search for af:calendar
Skinning is explained in teh Web Developer Guide on
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E15523_01/web.1111/b31973/toc.htm
Frank

How to make a semi-transparent layer?

Hello everyone,
I am making my own website with Dreamwaver. I am a totally
new user and have no IT background. So could anyone here kindly
help me with my question:
In the main page I would like to use two layers with images
inserted. The second one will be a semi-transparent image which is
made in Fireworks. I would like to let this layer cover the first
one. Because it's semi-transparent, so i should still be able to
see the underlying image... I did all this, but finally in the IE
the second layer is NOT transparent at all.
I don't know where the problem is. Please, if anyone knows
the solutions or have any suggestion, let me know!
Thanks!
Inca

I'll show it to you my way:
1. Type the text and click the layer mask icon. The layer mask should be all white and have a small border. That indicates the mask ist active.
The foreground color should be black and the background color white.
2. Choose the gradient tool. Open the gradient window. Choose the first gradient, "foreground to background" = black to white.
Change the white color to gray.
3. Check the layer mask > is it active?
Apply the gradient from right to left over your text.
See the thin line in the screenshot.
4. On your layer mask appears the gradient, left starting with gray and right ending with black.
The advantage of this method is that you can change your text without modifying the gradient.
The black color on the layer mask hides the text, the gray color makes the text more or less visible and white color means full visible.
Hope it helps.
miss marple

How to apply a semi-transparent background to a text box

Hi Framers,
The cover of my doc has a full-page .png file on a master page. I want to add the title of the manual on the body page of the cover in a text box. No problem. However, I want to apply a semi-transparent effect to the background of the text box, so the graphic behind it shows in a muted way.
I'm sure this has to do with some combination of the Tint, Fill, and Overprint settings but none of my experiments have produced anything close to the desired effect.
I did RTFM and also searched the Help and the forum. I truly hope I didn't overlook the answer---but if I did, it wasn't for lack of trying!
As always, your expertise is very much appreciated.
TIA,
Gay

Wow, I wish I had Photoshop! I use a less sophisticated image editor, which has always served quite adequately and since it supports layers, I'll try to figure out how to do what you're suggesting.
(I did try a "None" fill and the bottom image does show up, but I wanted it a bit muted, as would happen with perhaps a "half transparency" and that is apparently what I can't achieve in FM.)
If I understand correctly, I need to edit the imported graphic to make a portion of it appear semi-transparent, and then when I bring it back into FM and put my text box on top of it, it will appear the same as if I had been able to put a partial transparency in the fill of the text box...
I really, really, really hate it when I find myself thinking "Word could do this easily, why can't Frame?"
Thanks for your helpful suggestions, guys, you're great. As always!
Gay

Exporting text with a semi transparent background that can be changed in PS or PP?

I'm creating a logo with a semi transparent background that I want to place on top of photos in Photoshop and videos in Premiere.
1. I do not see a transparent option when exporting as a .tiff. Is transparent .png my only option from AI?
2. I will need different amounts of transparency for the background depending on the image or video it is being placed on. Is there a way to export this and still have control in Photoshop or Premiere of the amount of transparency to apply towards the background?
Thanks!

1. So you are suggesting to just copy from AI and paste into PS?
2. Since the logo is text and the background is a rectangular shape, I need to make sure that I can lower the opacity in PS or PP independently of the text. I will have to do a test later, I do not have the file on this computer.
Thanks.

Scrolling semi-transparent panels

I have a parent panel that paints a custom background. Within that panel, I embed another panel held by a JScrollPane. My intent is to have the custom background show through on the panel that is being scrolled.
To accomplish this, I set both the scrollpane and the viewport to non-opaque and then I set the panel held by the scrollpane to non-opaque as well.
When I run the program everything works fine and the panel can be scrolled and displayes the background image just as I want it.
Next, I want to set the panel in the scrollpane to be semi-transparent. I set the panel to opaque and give it a semi-transparent background color(ie alpha value or .5). This gives me a see-through effect and when I run the program it initially looks good. However, when I scroll the panel, the refresh is not handled correctly. The problem appears to be that the paint method of the parent panel is not being called.
I think the scrollbar code incorrectly assumes that since the embedded panel is defined as opaque that the parent panels do not need to be painted. However, this assumption is only valid if the background color of the embedded panel has an alpha value of 1.0
Does anyone have a workaround for scrolling semi-transparent panels?

On second thought, that's going to cause a stack overflow. You are going to need a flag to not call it. Something like so:public void paint(Graphics g) {
    if (someflag) {
        someflag=false;
        bgPanel.paint(bgPanel.getGraphics());
        someflag=true;
    // do my painting stuff ... super.paint(g); ???
}Just a thought, I haven't tested it.

Semi-transparent JFrame

I'm creating an address book for my java class and was wondering if theres any way to make a JFrame semi-transparent like how winamp and trillian skins so you can see the desktop behind it. I've messed with a few different things I've found on the web but with no avail. Should I be using something besides a JFrame? There must be a way top do this but why haven't I been able to find anything if transparencies are so big these days? If anyone has any ideas please let me know. It's due by February 21st.
Thanks in advance!

I think this you are looking for.. !!
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
public class TransparentBackground extends JComponent
          implements ComponentListener, WindowFocusListener, Runnable {
     // constants ---------------------------------------------------------------
     // instance ----------------------------------------------------------------
     private JFrame _frame;
     private BufferedImage _background;
     private long _lastUpdate = 0;
     private boolean _refreshRequested = true;
     private Robot _robot;
     private Rectangle _screenRect;
     private ConvolveOp _blurOp;
     // constructor -------------------------------------------------------------
     public TransparentBackground(JFrame frame) {
          _frame = frame;
          try {
               _robot = new Robot();
          } catch (AWTException e) {
               e.printStackTrace();
               return;
          Dimension dim = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
          _screenRect = new Rectangle(dim.width, dim.height);
          float[] my_kernel = {
                    0.10f, 0.10f, 0.10f,
                    0.10f, 0.20f, 0.10f,
                    0.10f, 0.10f, 0.10f};
          _blurOp = new ConvolveOp(new Kernel(3, 3, my_kernel));
          updateBackground();
          _frame.addComponentListener(this);
          _frame.addWindowFocusListener(this);
          new Thread(this).start();
     // protected ---------------------------------------------------------------
     protected void updateBackground() {
          _background = _robot.createScreenCapture(_screenRect);
     protected void refresh() {
          if (_frame.isVisible() && this.isVisible()) {
               repaint();
               _refreshRequested = true;
               _lastUpdate = System.currentTimeMillis();
     // JComponent --------------------------------------------------------------
     protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
          Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
          Point pos = this.getLocationOnScreen();
          BufferedImage buf = new BufferedImage(getWidth(), getHeight(), BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
          buf.getGraphics().drawImage(_background, -pos.x, -pos.y, null);
          Image img = _blurOp.filter(buf, null);
          g2.drawImage(img, 0, 0, null);
          g2.setColor(new Color(255, 255, 255, 192));
          g2.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());
     // ComponentListener -------------------------------------------------------
     public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent e) {
     public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent e) {
          repaint();
     public void componentResized(ComponentEvent e) {
          repaint();
     public void componentShown(ComponentEvent e) {
          repaint();
     // WindowFocusListener -----------------------------------------------------
     public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent e) {
          refresh();
     public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent e) {
          refresh();
     // Runnable ----------------------------------------------------------------
     public void run() {
          try {
               while (true) {
                    Thread.sleep(100);
                    long now = System.currentTimeMillis();
                    if (_refreshRequested && ((now - _lastUpdate) > 1000)) {
                         if (_frame.isVisible()) {
                              Point location = _frame.getLocation();
                              _frame.setLocation(-_frame.getWidth(), -_frame.getHeight());
                              updateBackground();
                              _frame.setLocation(location);
                              refresh();
                         _lastUpdate = now;
                         _refreshRequested = false;
          } catch (InterruptedException e) {
               e.printStackTrace();
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          JFrame frame = new JFrame("Transparent Window");
          TransparentBackground bg = new TransparentBackground(frame);
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          frame.getContentPane().add(bg);
          frame.pack();
          frame.setSize(200, 200);
          frame.setLocation(500, 500);
          frame.setVisible(true);
}gervini

Semi-transparent foreground image on top of opaque background image

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for