White PSP background needs to be transparent

Not the greatest at photoshop (mac) and need some help. I've got three layers that all seem to be set against a transparent background, which is what i want. Only, when i flatten them, the layers appear on a white background, not transparent. No where on any of the layers is it white, so i can't figure out why this is happening. the outside edge is jagged, thus i can't just crop the picture. How in the world can i keep the transparent background when i flatten?!?!

this is driving me absolutely batty, so if anyone can help, i would greatly appreciate it!

I don't think you can keep the background transparent. That's the way the program flattens your image.

If you want to keep the transparency (e.g. for a transparent GIF), don't flatten your image and choose Save As... GIF, with transparency. That way, you can keep the background transparent.

BTW, what program are you using? Photoshop, abbreviated as PS? Or Paint Shop Pro, abbreviated as PSP?

Yeah is PSP photoshop or Paintshop Pro?

In photoshop its quite easy but confirm your package first

If you merge the layers (NOT THE BACKGROUND) first, then COMMAND-CLICK the merged layer, save the selection, and save the file as a 32-bit format, it will have a transparent background in SOME programs (I work in TV, so I'm thinking After Effects, etc.). If it's for the web, I don't have an answer unfortunately.

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Had this very run in, but not sure if this applies to all photoshop programs. However, I do know it applies for Photoshop CS.
Any project saved in a TIFF or PDS format will allow you to reopen the project in the layer formant you saved it in, allowing you to work directly from where you left off, including all layers in transparent mode as well. In order to flatten image to a transparent background, you must make sure you delet the original solid background and save under TIFF or PSD as well.
Hope this helps!

try using the Export transparent Image in the Help menu..........can then be used in various other programmes such as quark etc......although sometimes you don't get previews when working this way.

don't know whether thats any good to you or not............

In your case, don't use flatten, use merge visible which is located in the same "pulldown menu". Saving it as PSD will preserve the transparency. If you want to export it for web usage, you can either use export or save for web under your files menu and save it as GIF, and make sure you check the box labeled transparency.