Oh, and to add to what everyone else has said, one thing that annoys the 
hell out of me is how Photoshop handles "backgrounds". If the background 
has alpha, your fine, if it doesn't, then you can have a "layer" with 
it, but once you export that it something like png, the result merges 
the solid background, while still "seeming" to have alpha in it. There 
is a way around this, but, sadly, it isn't as simple as, say, setting 
the color to alpha, then using a fill tool (you can do that in Paintshop 
Pro, or could, in older versions, and I think it also has/had a direct 
replacement thing you could do). Photoshop treats all colors, no matter 
how transparent they are, as something to "paint over" the background, 
not replace. This means that you can never add transparency to 
background, where the background doesn't already contain it, it will 
just be ignored.

So, to get alpha in an image that doesn't have it you need to make a 
copy of the "background" layer, which is what will eat the alpha layer 
when it merges into the png. This new layer can now have sections 
"edited out" making them transparent. Then, delete the unneeded 
background. When saved, it should result in nothing ending up "under" 
the parts you want to be see through.

But, so long as the background doesn't contain, and never did contain, 
any alpha, the png will never show any either, when created. The 
background will simply "fill in" any holes you have in the image, in 
your case, with black.

-- 
Commander Vimes: "You take a bunch of people who don't seem any 
different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get 
this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem."

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