: Color inverting layer I am trying to make an arrow that will stand out against any background. I know there are ways to make transparent and semi-transparent images. I was wondering if there

@Reiling762

Below is a screen shot of what e100 mentioned. I used Photoshop CS5.

Now, the only thing is, this arrow will stay the color you save it as. It will NOT invert on your website anymore. To be honest, that probably requires more coding than it does graphic design, and your question would have more success there. (There, being stackoverflow.com)

All the "difference" does is invert the color of the layer by everything below it, as seen below. So, you would need to resave it if you want to change your background.



Hope this helped!

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@Sims5801359

In Photoshop or Paint.NET, you'd draw your arrow layer, and then set that layer's blending mode to Difference - this will invert the underlying pixels.

The effect is controlled by the brightness of pixels in your arrow layer; white will completely invert, black (or transparent) will have no effect; grey or transparent pixels will have a partial effect.

I'm not familiar with GIMP, but I am sure it is much the same.

However, now it's clear you need a dynamic solution - i.e. to take the arrow and place it on a website in such a way that it always inverts the underlying background - this does not solve your problem.

I'd recommend you drop the 'invert background' line of investigation and go with a simpler solution which will still allow the arrow to stand out on any background.

One option would be a coloured arrow with a black border and/or a semi-transparent black drop-shadow. This is the kind of technique used for icons, which need to work on any background.

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