I don't know if this isthe right place, but here it goes.

I like recoloring textures, both that came with the game and that I find on the internet, mostly for my own enjoyment. I have recently noticed that when I recolor a texture that has a black area around it, in game the black shows up on my recolor, but not on the original. What am I doing wrong? Is there any way I can stop it from showing up on my items?

Thanks for any help.

Okay, I recently read something about the Alpha channel of certain image files (including TGA) controls transparency. I know need to know how to edit it.

Do I need some image program or does it need to be done in a hex editor. How difficult is it to do?

Thanks for any help.

You need an image editor. The alpha channel is saved as part of the .tga file. It decribes which pixels are transparent and what levels of opacity are used for the others.

That's what I thought. I also meant to ask this in my other post but ..

What image editor will work, I have ifran, fireworks, and Microsoft photo editor and I haven't found out how. Is there one that can be downloaded free?