Posted by Troy Piggins on 03/01/06 23:02

* Toby Inkster wrote:
> Troy Piggins wrote:
>
>> A third issue I have is the icons I've used. They are .png files with
>> transparent backgrounds. In firefox the transparency is good, but in IE
>> it paints the background white. I think I read somewhere this is known
>> for IE, but not sure if I remembered that correctly. Should I make them
>> .gifs?
>
> No point in making them GIFs. There are two different ways to make IE
> support transparent PNGs. Pick one.
>
> 1. Reduce the colour depth to 8-bit;
>
> 2. Force IE to load the PNG via ActiveX instead of through the normal
> image rendering engine. This is pretty tricky, but there are Javascript
> libraries out there that make it as simple as adding one or two lines of
> code to your page. I like: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bobosola/index.htm

Not that I am scared of learning something new, but I don't want to run
ActiveX on my site.

> Each solution has its own drawbacks.
>
> 1. The image may look crap (you lose millions of the key advantages of
> PNG: colours);

But they look so pretty now :-)

I think I will take a third option - I'll give them a background colour
that matches their position on the page so you don't notice it.

> 2. If you're carefully layering various things over the top of other
> things, ActiveX will float at the very top, ignoring your layering
> instructions.
>
> Choose wisely.
>
> FWIW, IE7 will have full PNG support.

Good to know, thanks.

--
Troy Piggins
Ubuntu 5.10 pkgs : kernel 2.6.12-9-386, postfix 2.2.4, procmail 3.22
Compiled from src : slrn 0.9.8.1/rt (score_color patch), mutt 1.5.11i
vim 6.4

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