Here is the original image (created by SWARM! family member, Lori ):

First, open up your paint program. (I use Paint Shop Pro 8 so that is the program I will be referring to but the principles for other paint programs are basically the same.) Zoom in on the image so u can see more detail. In this case, 300% is good for me. Use your selection tool ("magic wand") to select the background of the image. As u can see, I tried using a tolerance value of "0" but that didn't catch all the little bits that were not quite the same shade as the background. The tolerence basically tells the wand how much of an area to include:

Let's try a tolerence of "7". Ok now that worked for most of the background, but what about the other little sections (marked by the arrows)? To add those to the section u have already highlighted with the magic wand, simply hold down "Shift"...u will see a small "+" sign pop up. Now select those other sections with the wand while holding down Shift. The smaller sections will be added to the first section u highlighted. (If u want to subtract an area, hold down the "Ctrl" key instead of Shift):

Now that all of the background area is selected, select your "Flood Fill Tool" (little paint can) & choose a bright color that is NOT used in the image itself. I chose bright green. Now fill in the selected background with the color:

We need to set the transparency so that the the bright color we used to fill in the background is made transparent. Select "Image" again & then "Palette/Set Palette Transparency". Oops! An error window probably popped up that looks something like this:

That's ok. Select "Ok". Now u should get the transparency window. Just hover your mouse over the bright background area of your image & u will see the dropper icon. Click on the background & now u should have "Set the transparency value to palette entry" button automatically selected & the background color showing to the right:

Now click "Proof" & u will see the background change to a checkboard pattern. This means it has been made transparent:

Click "Ok". The window will close but oh no! Your image's background is the bright color again. It's ok. It just means u are not viewing it in it's transparent state but it will be transparent when u upload it. To see it correctly, click "Image" once again, then "Palette/View Palette Transparency":

Now that we're done, let's save it. This is very important because not all image extensions, .jpg, .bmp, etc., allow for transparent images. U have to save it in .gif format or else the bright background color will show up. Select "File/Save As" & choose a folder u want to keep the image in. Underneath where u type in the file name of the image, it says "Save as type:" Use the drop down menu here to select ".gif" format ("CompuServe Graphics Interchange"). Then click "Save":

That's it!

This is what u should see :

This is what u will see if u saved it as a a jpg or another type of file :

Hope this helps.

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