Color-transparency in PNG graphics

[Michel V]

Well i heard i could make transparency with PNG file format, but even if i manage to set the image's transparence to something like 50%, it still shows as if it was not transparent when i include it on a page and see this page in the browser. (sorry for my loosy english, i hope you understood)

It's like a transparent GIF. Either totally transparent, or not transparent at all. That's a pity, because i planned on making cool transparency effects with this promising PNG format.

Or maybe my browsers are too old. I tried on IE 5.0 and NS 4.7, not on the latest Mozilla yet.


Anybody managed to get the 50% transparency work correctly in a browser ?
Maybe there's something i forgot when i created the PNG file. So if you got a tip, on PhotoShop or GIMP, help is welcome !

[Fluffykins]

I dunno if this helps:

In Fireworks, which is what I use for PNG files, you've an option to set the canvas colour by using Modify > Canvas Color. White, Transparent and Custom are the options there.

It depends on which package you're using, but changing the canvas colour might be the place to start.

As far as I know though, PNG files are the same as GIF files in that you can only set one colour as transparent, when you export it, i.e., you can't have the background show through the whole image.

Someone please prove me wrong

Ady

[duckie]

PNG does support alpha transperancy. I think Mozilla supports that. IE5.5 too if I remember correctly.

[creole]

Ady...you're wrong...

PNG supports 256 levels of transparency.

Check out these pages about this file format.

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/png-sitemap.html#images

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngintro.html

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~stl/png.html