Resource pack help

im VERY new to making resource packs but ive made 1 that is glitchy as all hell the armor works but the weapons... not so much its a minez texture pack, im using adobe photoshop elements 9 to make the textures transparent but its making an extra pixel layer to the wood sword/its now a switchblade cuz i though it would help stop the layer but lets get to the point i need a better program that paint something that u can make pics transparent on (not including photoshop) or someone to help me i will give credit