Yambo's Blog

So what is alpha channel transparency?

Posted by Yambo on 1 July 2011

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Using the PNG file format makes building beautiful websites so much easier! Cast your minds back to the days where the only way to use image transparency was by using the GIF file format.

The GIF format worked by either enabling surrounding pixels of the image to be transparent or not. Each pixel was either fully transparent or a solid colour - there was no go between! The solution? The PNG Alpha transparency!

The PNG format solved the problem by giving each pixel a seperate channel of transparent information - allowing a pixel's alpha channel to be fully transparent, fully opaque, or any percentage step inbetween.

The PNG format gives much more creative freedom to the designer and helps us to create beautiful websites.

See our porfolio for more details! :D