Screen capture appears black even after editing

Question

I am having problems getting a screen capture. Even after I paste the picture into IrfanView, crop it, save it to file and reopen it, the problem is still there. It shows correctly in Irfanview, but the thumbnail is black and if post it, like to this site, it appears black.

I have heard that this may be because the PNG image is "transparent" and the background is black, so what you are seeing is the background, and because IrfanView shows the image and ignores the alpha channel, that is why it views correctly in IrfanView. Is this right?

Here is the image (after being cropped, saved and uploaded):

If this is the problem, how can I remove the alpha channel or make it non-transparent so that the image can be seen?

Answer 1

Most likely the issue it with the alpha channel (it's set to 0 everywhere). So you need to set it to 100% (255) everywhere.

I suggest you try Paint.NET http://www.getpaint.net/. It's free and can certainly open and properly display 32 bit PNGs. It also allows you to increase opacity (alpha channel) as needed.

Once you have increased opacity, you can save the image in whatever format you want.