topic Re: How to select one color from a colormap image to make it transparent in ArcGIS Pro Questions

How to select one color from a colormap image to make it transparent

FrankThiemann — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 10:27:04 GMT

I have a topographic map stored as tif-image with indexed colors (colormap).

I want to select one of the colors of the image as transparent background color.

To edit the colormap in this manner seems not to be possible.

Is there any workaround to do this without changing the image format (e.g without converting the image into RGB)?

Re: How to select one color from a colormap image to make it transparent

SeaRM — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 02:45:43 GMT

If your colormap is a .clr file, you can edit it as a simple text file in different ways. Just replace your selected color with the required one.

Re: How to select one color from a colormap image to make it transparent

ThomasHoman — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 02:51:55 GMT

One possible solution - https://support.esri.com/en-us/knowledge-base/how-to-remove-the-white-background-of-a-tiff-image-000023222

Re: How to select one color from a colormap image to make it transparent

FrankThiemann — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 17:54:19 GMT

Thanks for you try. Both is not what I'm looking for.

Yes, normally you can select one color value as background color - but this does not work with colormap images. There is simply no menu to select this color.

I can export the colormap change the colors and reimport the colormap. But these are only rgb values. I can not change the transparency (alpha)

exported colormap looks like this (no. r g b)

0 242 242 242
1 255 254 255
2 255 255 255
3 191 230 230
4 153 255 179
5 230 255 204
6 191 242 128
7 230 230 204
8 255 255 230
...

Re: How to select one color from a colormap image to make it transparent

FrankThiemann — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 18:49:46 GMT

I found a solution.

I can set the nodata value of the image using arccatalog.

Re: How to select one color from a colormap image to make it transparent

ArleneGuest1 — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 19:54:56 GMT

I tried this by exporting a .clr file from one I had made and used in ArcMap. Then I imported it into the symbology for the layer I have in ArcPro. The background is white, not transparent so that didn't work. I would like to set one color (254) to be transparent. Seems like no way to edit the colormap in ArcPro. Any suggestion?

Re: How to select one color from a colormap image to make it transparent

ArleneGuest1 — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 20:09:01 GMT

I don't get the RGB menu when I go to Symbology of the tif. I see "Colormap" with no other choices. Any suggestions?

Re: How to select one color from a colormap image to make it transparent

ArleneGuest1 — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 21:14:40 GMT

I can set the NoData value of the raster, but that doesn't make it transparent. Suggestions?