PNG-24

Soldato
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Just want to check this before producing any work in PNG format (I'm not a web designer) :)

Am I right in thinking that all modern browsers can support PNG-24 (ie the png without restricted colours) with transparency. I know there's issues with ie5.5 but I'm not worried about that.

I'd rather use PNG than GIF if I can due to the better quality etc and I want to save some hassle if the background changes :)
 
Soldato
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Yes, IE6 and below don't support alpha transparency, but there are many many workarounds to provide support e.g. http://labs.unitinteractive.com/unitpngfix.php or http://www.alistapart.com/stories/pngopacity/. All other [worthwhile] browsers do. IE7 can be a bit funny if you dynamically modify the opacity property of a PNG-24, but that's a bit of an edge-case and most people don't encounter it.

Even if you don't want to implement these workarounds, you can still use PNG-8 which has 1-bit transparency and an indexed colour palette; this is supported in all browsers and is a far superior choice than using GIF.
 
Soldato
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Blooming typical, MS is behind the times as always.
So basically do a workaround or put a note at bottom of site saying best viewed in ie7, ff3 etc
Only wanted to do some nice pretty transparent rounded corners and as usual ms (and slow to update corporate admins) messes things up as always :(
It's a shame we still need to support ie6 really considering ie8 has just been released, even worse when you have vista which doesn't even run ie6.

Cheers for the links will have a proper look in the morning when I'm a bit more awake.
 
Soldato
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I just use png-24 for regular browsers and then do one of three things for IE6 (dependent on client).

1. Leave it as is. The grey background won't impact the site's usability for IE6 users.
2. Convert the same image to png-8 and add it to an IE6 stylesheet (doesn't always look nice but usually better than the grey background of png-24).
3. Use a IE6 stylesheet to just use a bg color instead of an image leaving IE6 users with square corners.
 
Soldato
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transparent round corners? Why not use GIFs ? If you dont need a shadow and just simple transparency you can use GIFs and they will work across the board :)

Only real need to use PNG24 is when you have to have a drop shadow or higher detail than a GIF which doesnt sound necessary for rounded corners!
 
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