How do I make white .gif background transparent?

Someting I often wish I could do is render the white background on a .gif logo/file transparent, so I could paste it over other layers nicely without that white rectangle!

Is there an obvious way to do this?

Thanks for help

Using Photoshop 6

When you're all through making the graphic look the way you want, change the image to Indexed color:

Image->Mode->Indexed Color

Then export it as a .gif:

File->Export->Gif 89a Export

This will give you a popup box where you can select which colors to make transparent.


Two additional hints:

- If the image is going to go on a dark background, create it that way. Otherwise you'll end up with a very noticable light colored halo around the visible edge of the image.

- Choose a color for the background (that you're going to make transparent) that isn't in the image. Otherwise anywhere the now transparent background color appears in the image will be transparent too. A lot of times this is no big deal, but I've seen in ruin an otherwise good image.

Good luck,
wdn2k

Thanks for the tips! Will go off and try...