# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Other Discussion and Support > Art & Design >  Opacity in The Gimp

## t.z0n3

How do you change opacity in The Gimp? I can't find the option. 

Also, if anybody would look at my other topic, I still can't update the version to the new one.

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## digifan

try:
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Creating_Icons/
or
http://kimihia.org.nz/how/gimpalpha/
or
http://www.linuxnetmag.com/en/issue4/m4gimp1.html
to name a few

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## smartboyathome

You can change opacity by going to layers > transparency > add alpha channel

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## t.z0n3

I got to 'add alpha channel', but what do you do after that? Nothing happens. No special tool box appears like usual.  :Sad:

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## digifan

then you go to menu edit clear Ctrl+K

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## whiteraven

> How do you change opacity in The Gimp? I can't find the option.


Depending on what you are trying to achieve, there at least two ways to change opacity:

1) With the desired layer active, move the Opacity slider at the top of the layers dialog to the level you want - this affects the entire layer.

or

2) Using any of the selection tools, select the area of the layer you want to change. Open the Layer -> Colors -> Curves... dialog and set the Channel option to Alpha. Grab the upper right end of the diagonal line in the graph area and slide it downwards to the amount of alpha transparency you want.

There are other ways, but you will use these two most often. Hope this helps you, and have a look at the online book, Grokking the GIMP is very helpful even though it's a bit dated.

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## jmadero

I know that this is a really old thread but I had to say THANK YOU! I've been looking for stuff on opacity and transparency forever and I keep finding how to make the background transparent but I wanted to make the whole image transparent (like a watermark) and it was as simple as showing the layers and sliding the opacity bar down...THANKS!

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