>**Most of the confusion users have when trying to do this. comes from the idea that if there is "transparency" in the image somewhere there has to be a node for transparency somewhere, and somehow the alpha and color information should be connected to it. Please read further.** **The basic workflow:** - **Determine what part of the object will use the texture.** In Edit Mode select the faces where you want the image to be mapped. Press <kbd>U</kbd> to **[Unwrap][1]** them (depending on the shape you might need different a projection, in this example I used "sphere projection" but for your mesh it might be different). UV coordinates are used to map the image texture precisely on the object. [![enter image description here][2]][2] - **Create the material(s) and use the image to control the mix of different parameters**. Create a new material and assign it to your object. To edit the material, open the Node Editor window in shader and object mode. [![enter image description here][3]][3] Before you do anything else: a bit of an explanation of the key concept: **There is nothing "transparent" in an image.** An image with an alpha channel, is composed of two different elements. The RGB (Red, Green and Blue channels, or color information), and a black and white channel called "Alpha" channel. White parts determine what is opaque, and black areas what most people call "transparent". [![enter image description here][4]][4] All of this is easier to understand if you don't think at all in terms of transparency and think in terms of **Masks**, and use those masks to control how elements mix. What that means is that the alpha channel of a given image can be used as a Mask to control the **mix of color** or the **mix of shaders** White areas will be one element of the mix, Black areas will be the other, and any shade of gray will be a partial mix. There are two basic ways to use the alpha mask of a given image: - 1: **To control the color of a shader**. If you want to use the color information of the image over the color of a given shader, in a way that all other properties of the shader are homogeneous, then use a **color mix node**, and have the mask be the factor for the color of the shader. Plug Alpha to the Fac of the mixRGB and the resulting mix to the shader's color input. [![enter image description here][5]][5] Pay special attention to the order in which the sockets are connected. The black areas of the mask(or "alpha" channel) will use the color set in the RGB mix node, and the white parts will use the color of the image used as texture. If you are using more than one texture, then use both inputs of the color mix node to mix the textures. [![enter image description here][6]][6] - 2: **To control the the mix of different shaders**. Use this setup if you want to use the mask to control the mix between two different shaders. Note that doing this will make the masked areas have different characteristics. That will to control how a shader that uses the colors of your image texture combines with another shader. [![enter image description here][7]][7] ---------- Let's see how to deal with transparency then. - **Adding an image on a glass object** Glass is not different than any other shader. If the color image is intended to be part of the glass shader, then use a mix color node. The image's color will be part of the shader's color only in the areas determined by the image mask. [![enter image description here][8]][8] If the image is supposed to be opaque, or be a completely different material, then the alpha mask should control the mix of two different shaders. [![enter image description here][9]][9] And now for - **Real transparency:** If the image's mask is used to combine a transparent shader with any other shader, then you can see right through the mesh. [![enter image description here][10]][10] [![enter image description here][11]][11] Or the transparency can take the color of the image: [![enter image description here][12]][12] ---------- - What about the **Principled BSDF shader**? It is the same as any other shader. Use the mask to combine colors, shaders or any of the other qualities. [![enter image description here][13]][13] [![enter image description here][14]][14] [![enter image description here][15]][15] ---------- And, just for fun, you can use the alpha mask in as many combinations as you can think of. [![enter image description here][16]][16] [![enter image description here][17]][17] [1]: https://www.blender.org/manual/editors/uv_image/texturing/unwrapping.html?highlight=unwrap [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/TdBVY.png [3]: https://i.sstatic.net/Dt8nA.png [4]: https://i.sstatic.net/9LpLA.png [5]: https://i.sstatic.net/yWDds.png [6]: https://i.sstatic.net/gN2Jj.png [7]: https://i.sstatic.net/Xxoko.png [8]: https://i.sstatic.net/9wAut.jpg [9]: https://i.sstatic.net/LQj6B.jpg [10]: https://i.sstatic.net/Pu10j.png [11]: https://i.sstatic.net/5COq7.png [12]: https://i.sstatic.net/IRnHv.jpg [13]: https://i.sstatic.net/epUrN.png [14]: https://i.sstatic.net/zOu9W.jpg [15]: https://i.sstatic.net/tIizd.png [16]: https://i.sstatic.net/Ve9OS.png [17]: https://i.sstatic.net/GEGIg.png