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I have a semi-transparent monochrome image in a Photoshop document, that I would like to become fully opaque:

enter image description here

The opacity is already set to 100% in Blending Options, it's just that this image has an alpha channel that I would like to remove.

How can I do that?

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10
  • Is there a mask present? If not, simply duplicate the layer repeatedly until the transparency is gone, then merge the layers.
    – Scott
    Oct 3, 2012 at 3:14
  • I tried to duplicate the layer repeatedly, but the layer has some different levels of transparency, hence becoming a big black mess. I guess that's my problem: I don't have a single level of transparency.
    – BenMorel
    Oct 3, 2012 at 3:59
  • If I understood you correctly. From the top menu: Layers > Flatten image
    – Joonas
    Oct 3, 2012 at 6:34
  • Flatten image puts everything on a white background, I want to keep the shape on a transparent background!
    – BenMorel
    Oct 3, 2012 at 15:20
  • 2
    You need to be way more specific so that I can understand you (images maybe). You talk about wanting fully opaque image and then you say that you want to keep it transparent...
    – Joonas
    Oct 3, 2012 at 20:19

6 Answers 6

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20

I know this is an old question, but it's the first result if you search for removing the alpha channel in photoshop and neither of the answers worked for me.

To remove the alpha channel, click Layer->Layer Mask->From Transparency, then right click on the mask in the layer pallet and select Delete Layer Mask.

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13

It sounds like your issue is that the icon and opacity are baked into the alpha channel. This means you can't easily separate the two by duplicating the layer many times.

There's an easy solution though.

  1. Command-click the layer thumbnail to make a selection based on the alpha (Photoshop may complain about not selecting pixels over 50%... ignore it).
  2. Select → Save Selection, then press return (this will save the selection as a new channel.
  3. Select → Deselect.
  4. Open the Channels panel and select the one you just created.
  5. Press Command-L to open the Levels window.
  6. Click Auto.

That's probably as close as you're going to get to retrieve the icon. From here, you can:

  1. Command-click the channel thumbnail to make a selection.
  2. Open the Layers panel and crate a new bitmap layer.
  3. Fill it with colour.
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3
  • Whoa... that worked, exactly as I was hoping! Thanks a lot!
    – BenMorel
    Oct 5, 2012 at 6:56
  • Great to hear! :)
    – Marc Edwards
    Oct 5, 2012 at 12:06
  • Doesn't work in Photoshop CC 2014 :(
    – inund8
    Mar 13 at 9:24
2

There is a possibility not to Save as but Export as and then is there a checkbox Transparency and you have to uncheck it, then it has no transparency :)

Big thanks to Adobe for their proffessionality that they leave Save as dialogue window without possibility to uncheck it there too :(

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0

You can't have an opaque image with a transparent background. If you need to eliminate transparency but you have a specific background color that it needs to sit on, just add that color on a layer below before you flatten.

If there really is an alpha channel that you'd like to delete, then you just drag that channel to the trash icon in the channels panel.

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2
  • I definitely don't want to flatten the image. Please see the screenshot above! About the alpha channel, I can't see it in the Channels window.
    – BenMorel
    Oct 4, 2012 at 5:24
  • Just select the pixels and fill them with the desired color.
    – plainclothes
    Oct 4, 2012 at 20:39
0

when you save the file you can choose in the -save as- window the the little i- icon(right side of the format pull down . Here you can uncheck the alpha channel before saving....

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-1

Just save the image as jpeg then open it in another session and save again as png if you need to.

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