How to CREATE a transparent gif (or png) with PIL (python-imaging)

Question

Trying to create a transparent gif with PIL. So far I have this:

    from PIL import Image

    img = Image.new('RGBA', (100, 100), (255, 0, 0, 0))
    img.save("test.gif", "GIF", transparency=0)

Everything I've found so far refers to manipulating an existing image to adjust it's transparency settings or overlaying a transparent image onto another. I merely want to create a transparent GIF (to then draw onto).

Solution

The following script creates a transparent GIF with a red circle drawn in the middle:

from PIL import Image, ImageDraw

img = Image.new('RGBA', (100, 100), (255, 0, 0, 0))

draw = ImageDraw.Draw(img)
draw.ellipse((25, 25, 75, 75), fill=(255, 0, 0))

img.save('test.gif', 'GIF', transparency=0)

and for PNG format:

img.save('test.png', 'PNG')

Comments

[RealA10N]

As long as the 4th value in the color parameter (in this example (255, 0, 0, 0)) is set to 0, the image will be completely transparent - this is the value of the alpha channel. All of those should work exactly the same: (255, 255, 255, 0), (0, 0, 0, 0), (100, 100, 100, 0)

[HCLivess]

For animated GIFs, I had to use the following code: gist.github.com/egocarib/ea022799cca8a102d14c54a22c45efe0